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FOUNDED  BY  JOHN  D.  ROCKEFELLER 


The  Psychology  of  Oriental  Religious 

Experience 

A  STUDY  OF  SOME  TYPICAL  EXPERIENCES 

OF  JAPANESE  CONVERTS  TO 

CHRISTIANITY 


A  THESIS 

PkESENTED  TO  THE  GRADUATE  FACULTY  OF 

ARTS  AND  LITERATURE 

THE  GRADUATE  DIVINITY  SCHOOL 

(RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION) 


BY 
KATSUJI  KATO 


Sllie  Qlol'egitrte  jjjrrss 

GEORGE  BANTA  TUBLISFING  COMPANY 

MENASHA,  WISCONSIN 

1915 


®h?  ImnerHttg  of  GUjtraga 

FOUNDED  BY  JOHN  D.  ROCKEFELLER 


The  Psychology  of  Oriental  Religious 

Experience 

A  STUDY  OF  SOME  TYPICAL  EXPERIENCES 

OF  JAPANESE  CONVERTS  TO 

CHRISTIANITY 


A  THESIS 

PRESENTED  TO  THE  GRADUATE  FACULTY  OF 

ARTS  AND  LITERATURE 

THE  GRADUATE  DIVINITY  SCHOOL 

(RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION) 


BY 
KATSUJI  KATO 


SUje  Collegutie  Press 

GEORGE  BANTA  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
MENASHA,  WISCONSIN 
1915 


•BR  l/o 


Copyright  1915  by 

Katsuji  Kato 
Chicago,  Illinois 


QC  * 


ANALYSIS 


Chapter  I    Introduction 


1  The  Statement  of  the  Problem 1 

2  The  Method  of  Investigation 3 

3  A  Survey  of  the  Field 5 

Chapter  II    The  Religious  Life  of  the  Japanese 

1  The  Japanese  Mind 11 

2  The  Religiosity  of  the  Japanese 12 

3  The  Religious  Beliefs  of  the  Japanese 14 

Chapter  III    The  Psychology  of  Conversion 

1  The  Definition  of  the  Term 20 

2  The  Religious  Training  of  the  Japanese  Converts 20 

3  The  Intellect  in  Conversion 32 

4  Social  Processes  in  Conversion 39 

5  Conversion  as  a  Psychological  Crisis 46 

6  Rebirth  as  the  Post-Conversion  Experience 52 

Chapter  IV    Theoretical  Deductions 

1  The  Psychology  of  the  Christian  Apologetics 58 

2  The  Supernatural  Element  in  Conversion 66 

3  A  Psychological  Criterion  of  Morality  and  Religion 72 

Chapter  V    Practical  Deductions 

1  A  Problem  in  Christian  Missions 80 

2  Religious  Education  of  the  Japanese 87 

Chapter  VI    Conclusion  and  Summary 94 


355:j6-i 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE  : 

A  STUDY  OF  SOME  TYPICAL  EXPERIENCES  OF  JAPANESE  CONVERTS 

TO  CHRISTIANITY 

CHAPTER  I 

Introduction 

1.    the  statement  of  the  problem 

Individuality  in  ethnic  as  well  as  in  personal  experience  seems  to 
have  been  recognized  by  various  writers  in  the  psychology  of  religion. 
Thus,  after  a  detailed  and  original  study  of  the  religious  experience 
of  some  remarkable  individuals,  James  was  forced  to  raise  an  important 
question  as  to  individuality  in  religious  experience:  "Ought  it  to  be 
assumed  that  in  all  men  the  mixture  of  religion  with  other  elements 
should  be  identical?  Ought  it,  indeed,  to  be  assumed  that  the  lives  of 
all  men  should  show  identical  religious  elements?  In  other  words,  is  the 
existence  of  many  religious  types  and  sects  and  creeds  regrettable?"1  To 
this  question  he  offers  a  decidedly  negative  answer,  for  he  has  found  at 
least  two  opposing  temperaments  involved  in  the  psychological  analysis 
of  the  religious  consciousness.  With  reference  to  the  child's  capacity 
for  religion,  Ladd  says,  "Tribal  and  racial  differences  appear,  although 
in  a  somewhat  vague  and  baffling  way,  as  we  study  the  subject  from  the 
points  of  view  of  ethnology  and  comparative  psychology.  Indeed,  the 
capacity  for  religion  is  a  function  of  race-culture;  and  race-culture  is 
itself  profoundly  modified  by  the  degree  and  kind  of  religious  develop- 
ment which,  at  any  particular  time,  enter  into  it."2  The  same  motive 
is  voiced  in  Tawney's  suggestion  of  two  lines  of  investigation  as  to  the 
time  of  conversion,  viz.,  first,  an  elaborate  series  of  investigations  car- 
ried out  in  different  lands  among  persons  of  different  religious  belief 
for  the  purpose  of  comparing  the  religious  experiences  of  people  in 
different  countries,  climates  and  civilization;  and  secondly,  a  series  of 
investigations  carried  out  by  teachers  and  ministers  of  different  persua- 
sions in  Christian  countries  for  the  purpose  of  determining  the  times, 
the  conditions  and  the  nature  of  conversions  to  Christianity,  and  to 
other  types  of  religious  conviction.3    Baldwin  also  argues  for  the  neces- 

1  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,  London,  1902,  pp.  486  f. 

2  The  Child  and  Religion,  edited  by  Th.  Stephens.  New  York,  1905,  p.  150.    Cf.  also  J.  R.  Angell: 
Chapters  from  Modern  Psychology,  New  York,  1912,  p.  237. 

3  G.  A.  Tawney:  "The  Period  of  Conversion,"  Psychol.  Rev.,  Vol.  XI,  pp.  210-216. 


2  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

sity  of  studying  the  variety  as  well  as  the  unity  of  religious  experience;4 
and  such  studies  as  given  by  Begbie5  are  important  contributions  to  the 
psychology  of  religion  in  this  respect.  From  the  unanimous  opinions 
of  these  writers  it  seems  evident  that  a  clear  understanding  of  the  psy- 
chological grounds  for  the  existence  of  individuality  aids  us  materially 
in  explaining  many  perplexing  problems  both  theoretical  and  practical. 

The  mind  of  man,  wherever  we  happen  to  meet  it,  manifests  uni- 
form possibilities  and  is  practically  the  same  in  its  essential  nature,  and 
yet  the  physical  and  social  factors  of  a  race  mould  its  mentality  in  the 
matrix  peculiar  to  itself  as  distinguished  from  that  of  other  races.  The 
characteristics  thus  brought  into  prominence  may  be  designated  as 
"ethnic  individuality"  which  usually  forms  the  basis  of  all  scientific 
discussion  pertaining  to  any  given  race  and  furnishes  us  with  the  point 
of  departure  in  our  attempt  to  analyse  any  human  behavior  religious 
or  otherwise.  Thus,  M.  Taine,6  in  his  psychological  interpretation 
of  English  literature,  was  compelled  to  begin  his  treatise  with  the  ethnic 
traits  of  the  Saxons,  as  determined  by  their  geographical  and  atmos- 
pheric conditions,  and  the  same  motive  defines  the  problem  of  the 
present  thesis.  We  aim  at  the  psychological  interpretation  of  the 
phenomenon  of  conversion  and  various  phases  of  religious  experience 
attendant  upon  it,  as  seen  in  a  group  of  arbitrarily  selected  Japanese 
Christians  who,  in  many  cases,  had  been  brought  up  in  a  non-Christian 
environment.  Our  attempt  is,  therefore,  intended  to  be  a  contribution 
to  the  general  subject  of  the  variety  of  religious  experience  and  its  bearing 
upon  a  few  practical  problems. 

That  such  an  investigation  is  imperative  both  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  theoretical  psychology  of  religion  on  the  one  hand,  and  that  of 
the  practical  problems  of  missions  and  religious  education  on  the  other, 
needs  no  elaboration.  The  failure  to  recognize  the  importance  of  the 
problem  has  led  many  students  of  comparative  religion  to  unnecessary 
confusion  and  inadequate  generalization;  and  the  disregard  of  its  princi- 
ples in  the  practical  propaganda  of  the  Christian  religion  has  caused 
many  missionaries  to  wonder  at  their  meagerly  rewarded  earnestness.7 

4  J.  M.  Baldwin:  Fragments  in  Philosophy  and  Science,  New  York,  1902,  p.  327. 

6  Harold  Begbie:  Twice-Born  Men,  New  York,  1909;  In  the  Band  of  the  Potter,  New  York,  1911;  etc. 

6  H.  A.  Taine:  History  of  English  Literature,  translated  into  English  by  H.  Van  Lann,  1873,  pp.  33  S. 

7  One  of  the  acutest  critics  has  the  following  statement,  significantly  pointing  out  the  fact  in  question: 
"One  cause  of  the  failure  of  mission  work  is  that  most  of  the  missionaries  are  entirely  ignorant  of  our  his- 
tory— 'What  do  we  care  for  heathen  records'  some  say — and  consequently  estrange  their  religion  from  the 
habits  of  thought  we  and  our  forefathers  have  been  accustomed  to  for  centuries  past.  Mocking  a  nation's 
history? — as  though  the  career  of  any  people — even  of  the  lowest  African  savage  possessing  no  record — 
were  not  a  page  in  the  general  history  of  mankind,  written  by  the  hand  of  God  himself.  The  very  lost 
races  are  a  palimpsest  to  be  deciphered  by  a  seeing  eye.     To  a  philosophic  and  pious  mind  the  races  them- 


INTRODUCTION  6 

But  the  saddest  of  all  shortcomings  is  that  many  goodly  teachers  of 
Christianity,  whether  professional  or  voluntary,  are  woefully  ignorant 
of  the  real  situation  and,  by  imparting  the  Christian  truths  in  ways 
obviously  unpedagogic,  are  leading  the  young  into  useless  labyrinths 
of  exotic  dogmas  and  creeds.  Such  a  situation  should  no  longer  be 
tolerated  now  that  we  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  religious  educa- 
tion has  some  valid  principles  and  methods — not  a  cluster  of  sophis- 
ticated aphorisms,  but  a  decidedly  scientific  and  pragmatic  formulation 
which  can  be  utilized  to  advantage  in  the  practice  of  religious  education. 

2.      THE  METHOD  OF  INVESTIGATION 

The  materials  that  form  the  bases  of  our  study  were  accumulated 
partly  from  a  series  of  private,  confidential  conversations  carried  out 
between  the  writer  and  the  subjects,  and  partly  from  the  biographies 
and  confessions  either  in  print  or  written  upon  request.  The  fact  that 
the  materials  to  which  we  had  access  are  comparatively  limited  in 
number  and  therefore  the  conclusions  that  are  drawn  therefrom  are 
tentative  rather  than  absolute,  needs  perhaps  no  apology.  We  are  to 
contribute  only  a  portion  to  that  great  field  of  comparative  psychology 
of  religious  experience.  The  published  biographies  and  confessions  are, 
with  the  exceptions  of  Nos.  7,  10,  11,  13,  14  and  15,  printed  in  the  Japa- 
nese language,  and  the  present  writer  is  responsible  for  all  the  transla- 
tion into  English.    The  following  is  the  list  of  our  subjects: 

1.  Taro  Ando,  president  Japan  Temperance  Union,  who  relates 
the  story  of  his  conversion  in  a  small  pamphlet  entitled,  "My  Conver- 
sion Experience  in  Hawaii,"  Tokyo,  1910,  rev.  ed. 

2.  Kaku  Imai,  formerly  a  Buddhist  priest,  now  a  Baptist  minister 
in  Tokyo,  who  gives  his  experience  in  "Why  I  Left  Buddhism  and  Be- 
came a  Christian,"  Tokyo,  Christian  Literature  Society  of  Japan,  1914. 

3.  Tomijiro  Kobayashi,  a  Christian  manufacturer,  whose  conversion 
experience  is  given  by  N.  Kato  in:  The  Life  of  Tomijiro  Kobayashi, 
Tokyo,  1911. 

4.  Torasaburo  Koki,  a  Congregational  minister:  Christian  World, 
No.  1180. 

selves  are  marks  of  Divine  chirography  clearly  traced  in  black  and  white  as  on  their  skin;  and  if  this 
simile  holds  good,  the  yellow  races  form  a  precious  page  inscribed  in  hieroglyphics  of  gold!  Ignoring 
the  past  career  of  a  people,  missionaries  claim  that  Christianity  is  a  new  religion,  whereas,  to  my  mind, 
it  is  an  'old,  old  story,'  which,  if  presented  in  intelligible  words, — that  is  to  say,  if  presented  in  the  vocabu- 
lary familiar  to  the  moral  development  of  a  people, — will  find  easy  lodgment  in  their  hearts,  irrespective 
of  race  or  nationality."     Inazo  Nitobe:  Bushido,  The  Soul  of  Japan,  11th  ed.,  New  York,  1900,  pp.    179  f. 


4  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

5.  Y.  Hiraiwa,  Bishop  of  Japan  Methodist  Churches:  Christian 
World,  No.  1183. 

6.  Mrs.  Hirooka,  whose  article  on  her  conversion  is  translated  by 
Susan  Ballard  in  The  East  and  the  West,  Vol.  X  (1912),  pp.  306  f. 

7.  Hiromichi  Kozaki,  a  Congregational  minister,  whose  experience 
is  printed  in  a  Japanese  pamphlet,  "My  Experiences  of  Twenty-five 
Years,"  Tokyo,   1905. 

8.  Shunkichi  Murakami:  Christian  World,  No.  1183. 

9.  Yasutaro  Naide,  an  Episcopalian  rector:  Christian  World,  No. 
1180. 

10.  Joseph  Hardy  Neesima,  founder  and  first  president  Doshisha 
University,  whose  religious  experience  is  reported  by  his  colleague, 
J.  D.  Davis:  A  Maker  of  New  Japan,  1894.  Also  A.  S.  Hardy:  Life 
and  Letters  of  J.  H.  Neesima,  Boston,  1892. 

11.  Paul  Sawayama,  a  Congregational  minister,  whose  conver- 
sion is  written  by  J.  Naruse  in  Modern  Paul  in  Japan.  An  Account 
of  the  Life  and  Work  of  the  Rev.  Paul  Sawayama,  Tokyo,  1893. 

12.  Ushio  Sugita,  a  Congregational  minister:  Christian  World, 
No.  1180. 

13.  Kanzo  Uchimura,  editor  of  The  Biblical  Study,  Tokyo:  How  I 
Became  a  Christian,  Tokyo,  1910.  Also  The  Diary  of  a  Japanese  Con- 
vert, New  York,  1893. 

14.  K.  Yamamoto,  secretary  Tokyo  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  whose  statement  is 
reported  by  John  DeForest  in  The  Sunrise  in  the  Sunrise  Kingdom, 
rev.  ed.,  New  York,  1909,  p.  171. 

15.  Heishiro  Yokoi,  a  scholar,  whose  experience  is  described  by 
W.  E.  Griffis  in  the  Homiletic  Review,  Vol.  LIX,  pp.  352  ff. 

The  above  is  the  list  of  the  printed  biographies  and  confessions,  but 
the  following  are  the  subjects  who  have  contributed  to  our  study  by 
verbal  statements  supplemented  by  their  own  writings  to  insure  accuracy 
of  thought  and  its  expression: 

16.  S.  M.,  29  years,  a  college  student.  Graduated  from  a  Metho- 
dist academy  in  Japan,  and  a  teacher  of  English  for  four  years  before 
coming  to  America. 

17.  K.  Y.,  28  years,  a  theological  student.  Graduated  from  an 
American  high  school  and  a  college. 

18.  S.  T.,  32  years,  once  a  newspaper  editor. 

19.  M.  H.,  28  years,  a  college  student.  Graduated  from  English 
Department  of  Doshisha  University. 


INTRODUCTION  5 

20.  Y.  B.,  28  years,  a  theological  student.  Graduated  from  a  mis- 
sion school  in  Japan. 

21.  T.  U.,  31  years,  a  college  student.  Once  a  government  official 
and  a  teacher  for  six  years. 

22.  T.  H.,  a  theological  student. 

23.  M.  Ka.,  25  years,  a  college  student. 

24.  K.  W.,  27  years,  a  student  in  dentistry.  Graduated  from  an 
agricultural  college  in  Japan. 

25.  K.  T.,  29  years,  a  college  student.  Graduated  from  an  American 
high  school. 

26.  H.  S.,  32  years,  a  theological  student.  Graduated  from  a 
mission  school  in  Japan  and  a  teacher  for  eight  years. 

27.  Y.  I.,  24  years,  a  college  student.  Graduated  from  a  mission 
school;  worked  in  a  bank  for  two  years. 

28.  S.  S.,  32  years,  a  theological  student.  Graduated  from  a  mission 
school  in  Japan;  assisted  Japanese  Y.  M.  C.  A.  work  in  Hawaii;  an  evan- 
gelist among  Japanese  in  California. 

29.  Y.  O.,  a  theological  student. 

30.  R.  H.,  a  theological  student.  Graduated  from  an  American 
university. 

31.  M.  K.,  a  college  student. 

32.  H.  T.,  23  years,  a  preparatory  student.  Graduated  from  a 
grammar  school  in  America. 

33.  K.  M.,  26  years,  a  college  student. 

34.  Sh.  Mu.,  25  years,  a  theological  student.  Graduated  from  a 
mission  school  in  Japan. 

35.  M.  S.,  36  years,  social  and  religious  worker.  Graduated  from  a 
mission  school  in  Japan,  and  from  an  American  theological  seminary. 

3.      A  SURVEY  OF  THE  FIELD 

Before  we  enter  upon  the  main  discussion,  it  is  necessary  to  review 
briefly  the  results  of  the  previous  investigators  and  thinkers  on  the 
general  subject  of  religious  conversion.  The  literature,  however,  is 
chiefly  concerned  with  the  ordinary  conversion  process,  either  sudden 
or  gradual,  and  not  particularly  with  its  comparative  or  ethnic  aspect. 
With  the  exception  of  a  few  writers  on  comparative  religion,  our  problem 
has  not  been  worked  out  adequately  from  a  psychological  point  of  view.8 

8  The  religious  experience  in  general,  chiefly  based  upon  oriental  materials,  has  been  treated  by  some 
psychologists.  The  latest  example  is  that  of  G.  M.  Stratton:  Psychology  of  the  Religious  Life,  New  York, 
1912.  A  more  or  less  popular  treatment  of  the  subject  is  abundant  in  missionary  literature.  For  bib- 
liography, consult  W.  I.  Thomas:  Source  Book  for  the  Social  Origins,  Chicago,  1909;  also  Bibliography  in 
Students  and  the  World-Wide  Expansion  of  Christianity  (Kansas  City  Convention  Report  of  the  Student 
Volunteer  Movement,  1914),  pp.  671,  696. 


6  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

As  to  the  history  of  the  psychology  of  conversion  as  such,  we  need  not 
go  into  its  details.9  The  fact  of  conversion  is,  perhaps,  as  old  as  race 
itself,  as  may  be  seen  clearly  from  the  religious  practices  now  still  extant 
among  primitive  peoples,  indicative  of  this  interesting  phenomenon.10 
Among  the  ancients,  we  possess  the  records  of  their  conversion  experi- 
ences in  the  writings  of  Lucretius,  Augustine,  Justin  Martyr,  Constan- 
tine  the  Great,  Jesus  Christ,  Buddha,  Paul,  and  many  others,11  and 
more  recently  we  find  the  cases  of  John  Bunyan,  John  Newton,  Jonathan 
Edwards  and  others.12  The  numerous  cases  of  conversion  phenomena 
have  hitherto  been  mainly  interpreted  by  philosophers  and  theologians 
from  metaphysical  and  ontological  points  of  view.13 

The  study  of  conversion  from  a  purely  psychological  standpoint  is 
comparatively  a  new  phase  in  the  history  of  religions,  for  as  late  as  in 
the  year  1896,  Leuba  writes:  "It  is  true  that  a  great  deal  of  historical 
and  philosophical  work  bearing  on  the  religious  problem  has  been  done 
during  the  past  decades,  but  no  researches,  from  the  standpoint  of  modern 
psychology,  on  the  subjective  phenomena  of  religious  life  have  ap- 
peared."14 It  is  with  the  work  of  Leuba,  stimulated  perhaps  by  G.  Stan- 
ley Hall,  that  we  can  directly  trace  the  beginning  of  the  psychological 
study  of  conversion.15    His  first  article  appeared  in  1896,  in  which  he 

9  For  history,  consult  J.  B.  Pratt:  "The  Psychology  of  Religion,"  Harvard  Thcol.  Rev.,  Vol.  I,  pp. 
430 ff.;  E.  S.  Ames:  The  Psychology  of  Religious  Experience,  pp.  3  ff. ;  and  F.  G.  Peabody:  "History  of  the 
Psychology  of  Religion,"  Unitarian  Rev.,  Vol.  XIV  (1880),  pp.  97-109,  and  193-211. 

10  Cf.  article  by  A.  H.  Daniels:  "The  New  Life:  A  Study  of  Regeneration,"  Am.  J ourn.  of  Psychol. 
Vol.  VI,  pp.  61-106.  Some  accounts  of  conversion  are  found  in  the  Old  Testament,  viz.,  Job,  Jacob, 
Samuel,  Isaiah.  The  contention  of  Carlyle  is  more  literary  than  scientific.  He  says,  "  Blame  not  the  word 
(conversion);  rejoice  rather  that  such  a  word,  signifying  such  a  thing,  has  come  to  light  in  our  modern 
Era,  though  hidden  from  the  wisest  Ancients.  The  Old  World  knew  nothing  of  Conversion;  instead  of  an 
Ecce  Homo,  they  had  only  some  Choice  of  Hercules.  It  was  a  new-attained  progress  in  the  Moral 
Development  of  man:  hereby  has  the  Highest  come  home  to  the  bosom  of  the  most  limited;  what  to 
Plato  was  but  a  hallucination,  and  to  Socrates  a  chimera,  is  now  clear  and  certain  to  your  Zinsendorf, 
your  Wesleys,  and  the  poorest  of  their  Pietists  and  Methodists."     Sartor  Resarlus,  Bk.  ii,  Ch.  10. 

11  Consult  W.  A.  Heidel:  "Die  Bekehrung  im  klassischen  Altertum,  mit  besonderer  Beriicksichtigung 
des  Lucretius,"  Zeits.  f.  Rel.-Psy.,  Bd.  Ill  (1910),  S.  377-402.  Conversion  of  Church  Fathers  is  given  by 
James  Stalker:  "Studies  in  Conversion,"  Expositor,  Vol.  VII  (7th  Series),  pp.  118-125,  322-333,  521-534; 
Vol.  I  (8th  Series),  pp.  549-561;  Vol.  II  (8th  Series),  pp.  52-61,  173-182.  Cf.  also  article  "Conversion" 
by  J.  Strachan,  Encyc.  of  Rel.  and  Ethics,  Vol.  IV. 

12 The  actual  cases  are  collected  by  J.  H.  Leuba:  "A  Study  in  the  Psychology  of  Religious  Phe- 
nomena," Am.  Journ.  of  Psychol.,  Vol.  VII,  pp.  309-385.  Also  W.  James:  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience, 
London,  1902. 

13  E.  g.,  Pfleiderer:  The  Philosophy  of  Religion,  Vol.  IV,  p.  128;  Theological  Writings  of  Benjamin 
Jowett.  edited  by  L.  Campbell,  New  York,  1902,  pp.  239  ff. 

14  "A  Study  in  the  Psychology  of  Religious  Phenomena,"  Loc.  cit.,  p.  310. 

15  Prior  to  the  appearance  of  this  article,  there  were  three  articles  which  might  be  regarded  as  being 
in  the  field  of  the  psychology  of  conversion.  These  are:  G.  S.  Hall:  "The  Moral  and  Religious  Training 
of  Children."  Princehn  Rev.,N.S.,  Vol.  IX  (18S2),  pp.  20-45;  W.  H.  Burnham:  "A  Study  of  Adoles- 
cence," Ped.  Sem.,  Vol.  I  (1891),  pp.  174195;  and  A.  H.  Daniels:  "The  New  Life:  A  Study  in  Re- 
generation,"    Am.  Journ.  of  Psycho!.,  Vol.  VI  (1895),  pp.  61  193. 


INTRODUCTION  7 

studied  empirically  the  experience  prior  to  conversion  and  the  crisis 
and  the  mental  state  subsequent  to  such  a  change.16  Starbuck  published 
his  book  on  conversion  in  1899,  in  which  he  expressed  his  conclusion  as 
to  the  psychological  view  of  conversion.17  In  another  connection  he 
made  the  statement  that  "much  depended  upon  temperament",18  and 
this  has  been  elaborated  by  Coe  who  shows  that  there  is  a  great  individual 
variation,  due  primarily  to  temperamental  difference.19  In  the  Gifford 
Lectures  at  Edinburgh  in  1902,  James  has  a  lengthy  account  of  con- 
version, and  his  psychological  explanation  is  chiefly  found  in  the  theory 
of  the  subconscious,  which  to  his  mind  is  the  sole  avenue  of  human  fellow- 
ship with  God.20  This  view  of  James,  however,  is  combated  by  Prince 
who  bases  his  criticism  on  the  change  of  personality  observed  in  the 
case  of  Miss  B.,  which  closely  resembles  that  of  Ratisbonne,  of  which 
James  makes  mention.21  Ribot  admits  the  subconscious  element  in 
conversion  and  his  conclusion  emphasizes  what  he  calls  the  inversion 
of  values.22  Granger  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  "conversion  is,  in 
its  essence,  a  change  of  intention;  and  this  may  be  directed  either  upon 
intellectual  or  upon  moral  objects."23  The  nature  of  conversion  pro- 
duced in  the  emotional  subjects  is  explained  by  Murisier  on  the  basis 
of  imitation,  after  a  preparation  which  consists  in  increasing  the  sug- 
gestibility of  the  subject.24  The  phenomena  of  conversion  and  revival 
are  exhaustively  studied  by  Davenport,  and  his  conclusion  is  that  con- 
version is  more  incidental  than  purposive,  and  that  the  cases  of  the  so- 
called  lapsed,  the  backsliders,  those  who  have  fallen  from  grace,  are 
simply  the  victims  of  powerful  force  of  suggestion  and  imitation,  and  the 
conversion  of  these  people  is  not  to  be  taken  very  seriously.25  Some- 
what different  from  the  conclusions  of  Granger  and  Davenport  is  the  con- 
tention of  Pratt  who  regards  conversion  as  taking  place  spontaneously 

18  Loc.  cil. 

17  The  Psychology  of  Religion,  pp.  156 5.  The  parts  of  this  work  had  previously  appeared  in  Am- 
J  own.  of  Psychol.,  Vols.  VIII  and  IX. 

18  Am.  Journ.  of  Psychol.,  Vol.  IX,  p.  110. 

19  The  Spiritual  Life:  Studies  in  the  Science  of  Religion,  New  York,  1900,  pp.  109-150. 

20  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,  London,  1902,  pp.  236-237. 

21  "The  Psychology  of  Sudden  Religious  Conversion,"  Journ.  of  Abnorm.  Psychol.,  Vol.  I,  pp.  52-54. 
This  view  of  James  is  also  criticized  by  Irving  King:  "The  Differentiation  of  the  Religious  Consciousness," 
Psychol.  Rev.  Monog.  Supple.,  Vol.  V,  No.  4.  The  operation  of  the  supernatural  factor  in  the  subsconcious 
has  been  denied  by  Peirce,  Jastrow,  and  Hall. 

22  La  logique  des  sentiments,  Paris,  1905,  pp.  85  ff. 

23  The  Soul  of  a  Christian:  A  Study  of  the  Religious  Experience.  New  York,  1900,  p.  77. 

24  Les  maladies  du  sentiment  religieux,  Paris,  1901. 

25  Primitive  Traits  in  Religious  Revivals,  p.  246. 


8  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

and  independent  of  social  pressure  or  even  of  imitation,  and  characterizes 
the  process  as  "a  new  feeling  of  communion  with  a  greater  life  which 
fills  the  mind  and  colors  the  entire  field  of  consciousness."26  A  very 
lengthy  treatment  of  the  subject  of  conversion  is  given  by  G.  Stanley 
Hall,  in  which  it  is  viewed  as  purely  spontaneous, — "a  natural  process 
of  a  higher  order,"  as  Lipsius  would  say.27  In  France,  Henri  Bois  of 
Montauban  studied  twenty-five  or  thirty  conversions,  from  St.  Paul 
to  those  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  showed  how  far  theological 
beliefs  would  explain  the  experience  of  conversion.28  Gaston  Frommel 
of  Geneva  is  said  to  have  made  some  observations  on  the  cases  of  Chris- 
tian conversion.29  Tawney  agrees  with  James  and  Starbuck  in  the  main 
by  adhering  to  the  idea  of  shifting  of  the  center  of  gravity  in  the  con- 
version experience.30  The  mechanism  of  conversion  is  explained  by 
Nacke  as  the  reinforcement  of  past  memories  by  the  sudden  emotional 
experience,  which  is  so  powerful  that  it  comes  to  the  full  focus  of  con- 
sciousness, submerging  and  inhibiting  the  previously  existing  ideas, 
thus  completely  shifting  the  point  of  view  of  the  individual.31  Begbie, 
who  studied  the  cases  of  sudden  conversion  among  the  London  poor, 
adopts  the  Jamesian  definition  of  conversion  and  says,  "It  produces 
not  a  change,  but  a  revolution  in  character.  It  does  not  alter,  it  creates 
a  new  personality.  The  phrase  'a  new  birth'  is  not  a  rhetorical  hyper- 
bole, but  a  fact  of  the  psychical  Kingdom."32  Cutten  also  agrees  with 
James  and  insists  on  the  difficulty  of  endeavoring  to  isolate  it  from  the 
rest  of  the  experience.33  Galloway  points  out  the  all  importance  of 
feeling  as  a  factor  in  religious  conversion,  but  he  links  it  to  the  ideational 
life.34  Ames  agrees  with  Starbuck  in  recognizing  the  three  stages  in 
the  process  of  conversion,  quite  similar  to  those  found  in  the  case  of  a 
person  working  out  a  problem  under  intense  pressure.35  Cornelison 
thinks  that  conversion  is  an  effect  produced  by  natural  causes,  and  is 
not,  either  in  whole  or  in  part,  the  product  of  direct  supernatural  agency, 

26  The  Psychology  of  Religious  Belief,  New  York,  1907,  pp.  222  ff. 

27  Adolescence,  Vol.  II,  pp.  349  ff. 

58  Reported  by  Jacque  Kaltenbach:  "Psychology  of  Religion  in  France,"  Am.  Journ.  of  Rel.  Psychol, 
and  Educ,  Vol.  I,  p.  92. 

29  Also  reported  by  J.  Kaltenbach,  Loc.  cit. 

30  "The  Period  of  Conversion,"  Psychol.  Rev.,  Vol.  XI,  pp.  211  ff. 

31  "Zur  Psychologie  der  plotzlichen  Bekehrungen,"  Zeits.f.  Rei.-Psy.,  Bd.  I,  S.  233  ff . 

32  Twice-Born  Men,  New  York,  1909,  pp.  17  f. 

33  The  Psychological  Phenomena  of  Christianity,  1908,  p.  235. 

34  The  Principles  of  Religious  Development,  London,  1909.  pp.  124  f. 
36  The  Psychology  of  Religious  Experience,  Boston,  1910,  pp.  2583. 


INTRODUCTION  9 

is  not  a  miracle  in  the  soul.36  Hocking  says,  "Conversion  is  in  part  at 
least  the  grasping  of  an  idea;  such  an  idea  as  can  thereafter  infuse  itself 
with  peaceful  dominance  through  the  system  of  conduct  and  belief."37 
The  religious  experience  of  St.  Paul  at  the  time  of  his  conversion  was 
studied  by  Royse  who  concludes  that  it  was  due  to  his  hysterical  nature;38 
and  Gardiner  explains  it  as  being  led  up  to  by  many  experiences  and 
thoughts,  and  not  by  sudden  mental  insight.39  McDougall  attributes 
the  subconscious  element  in  conversion  to  the  experiences  which  have 
played  upon  consciousness  in  one's  previous  days,  and  which  once 
formed  essential  factors  in  his  knowledge,  interest  and  character.40 
Insisting  upon  the  same  principle,  Bavinck  says,  "Conversion  which 
brings  us  into  fellowship  with  God  (i.  e.,  genuine  regeneration)  never 
happens  immediately,  but  is  always  connected  with  representations  and 
impressions  which  we  have  received  at  some  time,  shorter  or  longer, 
previously.  It  always  takes  place  in  connection  with  historical  Christi- 
anity, which  in  one  or  another  form  exists  before  and  without  us,  and 
now  enters  into  harmony  with  our  own  soul."41  The  importance  of  the 
previous  experience  in  influencing  the  conversion  experience  is  again 
emphasized  in  the  case  of  Christ  himself  by  Forrest.42 

The  age  of  conversion  has  been  a  subject  of  investigation  by  many 
workers  in  religious  psychology,  although  strictly  speaking  the  enquiry 
is  more  physiological  in  nature  than  psychological.  It,  however,  has  an 
important  relation  to  the  problem  of  mental  development  in  general, 
and  consequently  possesses  some  degree  of  pertinence.  Lancaster  found 
that  out  of  598  cases,  518  showed  new  religious  inclination  between  the 
ages  of  12  and  25,  and  mostly  between  the  ages  of  12  and  20.43  His 
average  age  was  15.6  for  boys,  and  14.6  for  girls.  Gulick  investigated 
the  class  of  526  officers  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  in  the 
United  States  and  Canada,  and  found  that  16.5  was  the  average  age  of 
conversion.44  Starbuck  studied  the  religious  experiences  of  776  gradu- 
ates of  Drew  Theological  Seminary,  and  found  that  the  largest  number 
was  converted  at  16,  and  the  average  age  was  16.4.45     Coe  found  the 

36  Natural  History  of  Religious  Feeling,  New  York,  1911,  pp.  102  (. 

37  The  Meaning  of  God  in  Human  Experience,  New  Haven,  1912,  p.  73. 

38  "The  Psychology  of  Saul's  Conversion,"  Am.  Journ.  oj  Rel.  Psychol,  and  Educ,  Vol.11,  pp.  148  f. 

39  The  Religious  Experience  of  St.  Paul,  New  York,  1911,  pp.  31  ff. 
*°  Psychology:  The  Study  of  Behavior,  New  York,  1912,  pp.  2191 

41  The  Philosophy  of  Revelation.  Princeton  Lectures,  1909,  p.  238. 

42  The  Christ  of  History  and  of  Experience,  Edinburgh.  1897,  p.  288 
"Ped.  Sem..  Vol.  V.  p.  95. 

44  "Sex  and  Religion."  Association  Outlook,  Dec.  1897.  p.  54. 

45  Am.  Journ.  of  Psychol..  Vol.  IX.  pp.  79  i 


10  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

average  age  of  decisive  religious  awakening  to  be  at  15.4  for  84  men  and 
16.4  for  272  members  of  Rock  River  Annual  Conference.46  Eby  col- 
lected answers  from  over  1,500  believers  as  to  the  age  and  time  of  con- 
version and  found  the  great  majority  of  cases  to  occur  between  10  and 
25,  and  also  more  frequently  and  earlier  in  girls  than  in  boys,  although 
the  maximum  age  in  both  is  14.47  From  these  and  other  minor  and  less 
known  results  of  investigations,  we  are  led  to  think  that  conversion  is 
decidedly  an  adolescent  phenomenon.  Nevertheless,  it  is  also  true  that 
it  is  not  a  single  and  once-for-all  act,  but  often  repeats  itself  with  the 
advance  of  years,  as  Strachan  says,  "Conversion  plays  too  important 
a  part  to  be  exhausted  in  a  single  decision."48  Conversion  taking  place 
in  mature  age  has  been  recognized  in  many  instances.49 

There  is  one  more  consideration  before  we  leave  this  brief  summary 
of  the  literature  on  conversion,  and  that  is  the  fact  of  normal  religious 
development.  The  investigations  of  conversion  have  chiefly  been  based 
on  the  sudden  and  striking  cases.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  gradual 
type  cannot  properly  be  called  a  conversion,  as  James  would  think, 
or  else  it  is  not  novel  enough  to  deserve  any  extended  study.  But  it 
is  commonly  agreed  that  there  are  cases  which  show  no  sudden  trans- 
formation of  character  and  yet  the  religious  experience  is  equally  genu- 
ine and  intense,  and  the  facts  and  interpretations  of  sudden  conversion 
are  applicable  to  this  type  of  slow,  normal  and  steadfast  religious  de- 
velopment.    James  himself  remarks,     " they  are  as  a  rule 

less  interesting  than  those  of  the  self-surrender  type,  in  which  the  sub- 
conscious  effects   are   more   abundant   and   often   striking 

Even  in  the  most  voluntarily  built-up  sort  of  regeneration  there  are 

passages    of    partial    self-surrender    interposed; "50    The 

same  note  is  sounded  by  Leuba,  " in  the  main,  the  con- 
clusions reached  by  the  study  of  sudden  conversion  apply  with  equal 
exactitude  to  slowly  progressing  regenerations."51  Thus  we  are  to 
understand  that  the  same  principle  may  be  applied  in  explaining  both 
the  sudden  and  the  gradual  types  of  conversion. 

44  The  Spiritual  Life,  pp.  43  S . 

""Conversion  in  Relation  to  the  Sunday  School,"  Baylor  University  Bull.,  Vol.  X,  No.  5  (1907) 

48  Encyc.  of  Rel.  and  Ethics,  Vol.   IV,  p.   107.      This  fact  is  recognized  by  evangelists;  e.  g.,  John 
Watson:  The  Inspiration  of  Our  Faith,  pp.  77  ff. 

49  Romanes  has  a  statement  concerning  this  fact:  Thoughts  on  Religion,  6th  ed.,  p.  102,  quoted  by 
Strachan,  Loc.  cit. 

60  Varieties  oj  Religious  Experience,  pp.  207  f. 
51  Am.  Journ.  oj  Psychol.,  Vol.  VII,  p.  312. 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Religious  Life  of  the  Japanese 
1.    the  japanese  mind 

Between  the  Japanese  mind  and  the  Occidental  mind  it  is  frequently 
questioned  whether  there  is  any  difference.  Volumes  have  been  written 
by  students  of  ethnic  psychology  and  their  answers  to  this  query  assume 
both  affirmative  and  negative  forms.  The  question  was  recently  put 
forcibly  before  the  reading  public  by  George  Kennan  who  answers  it  in 
an  emphatic  negative.52  He  makes  a  number  of  very  interseting  quota- 
tions from  books  written  by  supposedly  competent  scholars  and  observ- 
ers of  the  Japanese  mind,  who  emphasize  the  marked  difference  in  the 
mental  constitutions  between  the  Eastern  and  the  Western  people,  point- 
ing out  the  gulf  which  is  well-nigh  impossible  to  be  bridged  by  mutual 
understanding.53  It  is  true  that  in  many  mental  traits  the  Japanese 
present  peculiarities  not  manifest  in  the  Western  mind.  It  has  been 
repeatedly  pointed  out,  for  example,  that  the  Japanese  are  imitative 
to  an  extraordinary  degree,  that  they  are  deficient  in  originality,  that 
they  lack  the  logical  and  philosophical  faculties,  that  they  are  of  senti- 
mental temperament,  that  they  are  quick  in  sense  perception,  that  they 
are  strong  in  will  power,  etc.54  But  we  must  admit  that  these  traits 
are  not  altogether  absent  in  the  Occidental  mind.  Recent  experimental 
results  on  the  psychology  of  individual  difference  and  of  mental  types 
have  clearly  shown  us  that  there  exists  a  variety  of  mental  traits  in  any 
given  group  of  individuals.  The  curves  of  distribution  of  mental  traits, 
in  other  words,  are  the  same  whether  they  are  obtained  from  a  group  of 
Japanese  or  of  Americans.  The  mere  statement  of  seeming  differences 
between  any  two  groups  of  people  is  not  in  itself  an  explanation;  we 
must  rather  seek  such  explanation  by  correlating  various  mental  traits 
in  any  given  race  with  the  environmental  factors  which  are  chiefly 
responsible  for  the  creation  of  the  so-called  racial  mind. 

The  fundamental  assumption,  then,  in  the  discussion  of  the  psy- 
chology of  the  Japanese  mind  must  not  involve  any  notion  of  mental 

""Can  We  Understand  the  Japanese?"  The  Outlook,  Aug.  10,  1912,  pp.  815-22.  Cf.  also  Dr. 
Hamilton  W.  Mabie's  article  in  the  same  magazine. 

53  These  authorities  are:  W.  P.  Watson:  Japan:  Aspects  and  Destinies,  London,  1904;  Sir  Ian 
Hamilton:  Staff  Officer's  Scrap-Book;  Henry  Norman:  The  Real  Japan;  Homer  Lea:  The  Valour  of  Ignor- 
ance; L.  Hearn:  Japan:  An  Attempt  at  Interpretation;  Horace  Fletcher:  "Home  Life  in  Japan,"  in  the 
Good  Health,  Feb.,  1910. 

54  Cf.  G.  Verenne:  "Essai  sur  la  psychologie  ethnique  de  quellques  races  asiatiques  (psychologie 
normal),"  Arch,  intern,  d.  neurologie,  T.  I,  lOme  Ser.,  pp.  25-40;  also  A.  Marie  et  G.  Verenne:  "Notes  de 
psychopathologie  ethnique  (races  jaunes),"  Ibid.,  T.  1,  pp.  69-82,  150-162. 


12  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

difference  which  deceives  even  the  most  trained  observer  under  the  guise 
of  social  inheritance.  It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  mental  develop- 
ment is  essentially  social  and  any  peculiarities  that  are  found  in  the  social 
environment  will  find  their  counterpart  in  the  psychic  life  of  the  people.55 
The  validity  of  our  discussion  depends  upon  the  distinction  we  can 
discern  between  the  social  and  the  mental  or  rather  biological  elements 
involved  in  the  religious  experience  of  the  Japanese.  From  our  stand- 
point, then,  the  mental  inheritance  is  more  or  less  a  constant,  a  known 
quantity,  while  the  social  inheritance  is  a  variable,  an  unknown  quantity. 
We  must  first  see  that  this  variable  social  inheritance  exists  in  the  case 
of  the  Japanese  religious  life,  and  only  after  such  study  shall  have  been 
completed,  are  we  in  position  to  understand  the  inheritance  of  these 
two  elements  in  one's  religious  consciousness.56  Hence,  our  immediate 
problem  is  with  reference  to  the  religious  inheritance  of  the  Japanese, 
under  whose  influence  their  religious  consciousness  is  given  birth  and 
matured. 

2.     THE   RELIGIOSITY  OF  THE  JAPANESE 

The  question  of  the  religiosity  of  the  Japanese  has  also  been  raised. 
The  suspicion  foremost  in  the  mind  of  Occidental  scholars  is  as  to  whether 
the  Japanese  are  religious  in  the  sense  that  is  ordinarily  understood 
by  the  term.  The  full  discussion  of  this  subject  would  lead  us  too  far 
afield  for  our  present  purposes.  The  solution  of  this  problem  seems  to 
depend  upon  the  view  of  the  racial  mind  which  has  just  been  noted. 
The  opinions  on  this  point,  however,  vary  among  different  writers  on 
the  religious  life  of  the  Japanese,  but  the  majority  of  them  take  the 
negative  attitude  in  regard  to  the  problem.  Chamberlain  speaks  of 
the  Japanese  as  "essentially  an  undevotional  people,"57  Munzinger 
says  they  are  "highly  ethical,  not  highly  religious,"58  Walter  Denning 
concludes  they  are  "unable  to  understand  the  intense  interest  taken 

55  On  this  point  a  notable  work  is  that  of  Sidney  L.  Gulick:  Evolution  of  lite  Japanese:  Social  and 
Psychic,  New  York,  1903.  John  Stuart  Mill  is  said  to  have  remarked  that  "Of  all  vulgar  modes  of  escap- 
ing from  the  consideration  of  the  effect  of  social  and  moral  influence  on  the  human  mind,  the  most  vulgar 
is  that  of  attributing  the  diversities  of  conduct  and  character  to  inherent  natural  differences,"  quoted 
by  W.  P.  Watson:  The  Future  of  Japan,  New  York,  1907. 

88  The  analogy  of  individual  and  racial  differences  is  not  as  conclusive  as  some  may  think.  It  makes 
one  think  that  such  an  analogy  could  be  absolutely  used,  but  it  has  very  little  weight  as  we  see  it  stated 
often,  e.  g.,  "It  seems  that  there  is  a  residuum  of  'race-mind'  not  amenable  to  the  power  of  'social  and 
moral  influences,'  and  from  this  might  be  suggested  by  the  analogy  of  the  dissimilarities  of  individual 
mind  and  character — the  probability,  namely,  that  these  are  'inherent  natural  differences'  in  the  mental 
constitution  of  races."     Watson:  Op.  cit.,  p.  207,  footnote 

87  Things  Japanese,  article  "Religion." 

88  Die  Japaner,  p.  187. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LEFE  OF  THE  JAPANESE  13 

by  the  people  of  the  West  in  ethical,  religious  and  philosophical  ques- 
tions, ''59  Pfleiderer  is  said  to  have  remarked  in  1897,  "I  am  sorry  to 
know  that  the  Japanese  are  deficient  in  religious  nature,"60  Percival 
Lowell  said  in  connection  with  Japanese  religious  practices  that  'sense 
may  not  be  vital  to  religion,  but  incense  is,"61  and  finally  an  eminent 
missionary  to  Japan  concludes  in  favor  of  the  non-religiosity  of  the 
Japanese  by  saying: 

" Allowing  liberal  room  for  exceptions,  which  certainly  exist,  the  average 

Japanese  is  not  a  man  of  deep  religious  conviction Bearing  in  mind  the 

religious  eclecticism  which  has  prevailed  in  Japan  for  centuries,  the  absence,  in  general, 
of  deep  religious  convictions  causes  no  surprise;  the  two  are  mutually  destructive 

that  the  religious  life,  as  well  as  the  intellectual  life,  of  the  Japanese, 

is  marked  by  superficiality,  is  one  unfortunate  result  of  the  historical  development 

of  the  religious  life  of  the  nation The  influence  of  Confucianism  upon 

the  educated  class  of  Japan — that  it  has  had  a  benumbing  influence  could  only  be 
expected  from  a  system  which  is,  at  the  best,  uncertain  as  to  the  existence  of  a  personal 
Supreme  Being,  and  knows  nothing  of  penitence  and  mercy.  Religious  indifference  is 
certainly  characteristic  of  the  educated  class."62 

Watson's  statement  in  this  connection  is  very  significant:  "In  the  end, 
however,  it  is  clear  that  the  Japanese  people  are  without  religion  as 
it  is  understood  in  the  West.  They  seem  to  have  the  capacity  for  reli- 
gious devotion — a  capacity  universal  as  the  human  mind  itself,  but  it 
fails  to  envisage  objects  which  Europe  would  regard  as  truly  sublime, 
or  truly  religious — objects,  that  is  to  say,  truly  deserving  the  service 
of  their  religious  devotion."63  This  situation,  as  Watson  would  explain, 
is  due  to  the  deficiency  in  imagination  which  is  so  important  a  factor 
in  idealizing  the  objects  of  religious  worship.64 

From  the  foregoing  opinions  on  the  question  of  the  religiosity  of  the 
Japanese,  we  may  wonder  if  it  is  possible  to  find  any  trace  of  religious 
consciousness  among  them,  and  if  the  study  of  such  a  phenomenon 
is  at  all  relevant.  It  seems  clear,  however,  that  the  history  of  religions 
in  Japan  unmistakably  points  to  the  mental  capacity  of  the  Japanese 
for  religious  devotion.65  It  may  be  true  that  many  Japanese  have  not 
yet  found  the  truly  idealized  Supreme  Being,  because  of  the  lack  of 
imagination,  but  this  will  not  deprive  them  of  religious  devotion.    The 

59  Quoted  by  Chamberlain:  Things  Japanese,  p.  258. 

60  Quoted  by  Gulick:  Evolution  of  the  Japanese,  p.  286. 

61  Occult  Japan,  p.  23. 

62  G.  W.  Albrecht:  "Religious  Life  of  Modern  Japan,"  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  Vol.  LXII,  pp.  13  n*. 

63  The  Future  of  Japan,  p.  161. 
M/£i'<f..  pp.  196  ff. 

66  See  T.  Ishigami:  A  Study  in  the  Psychology  of  Religion  (in  Japanese;. 


14  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

present  thesis  endeavors  to  throw  some  light  on  this  question  also, 
for  our  data  comprise  the  cases  in  which  the  idealizing  process  has  func- 
tioned and  the  subjects  have  found  the  truly  idealized  Being. 

3.      THE  RELIGIOUS  BELIEFS  OF  THE  JAPANESE66 

The  religious  life  of  Japan  presents  a  most  complex  situation.  Some 
scholars  would  analyse  it  and  find  many  constituent  elements,  while 
others  would  treat  it  as  a  composite  whole.67  But  in  any  case,  we  must 
have  a  fairly  clear  conception  of  the  fundamental  nature  of  each  com- 
posing element.  In  this  section  we  are  not  concerned  with  the  detailed 
analysis  of  Japanese  beliefs;  we  are  rather  concerned  with  the  psycho- 
logical significance  of  the  ethnic  religions  of  Japan. 

The  religious  atmosphere  of  Japan  has  at  least  five  important 
elements:  primitive  belief,  Shinto,  Buddhism,  Confucianism  and  Christi- 
anity.68 The  first  of  these  belongs  to  the  ancient  period,69  the  remains 
of  which  are  still  evident  in  the  fundamental  conceptions  of  Shinto. 
By  some  it  is  called  "nature  worship,"  or  "religious  Shinto"  as  distin- 
guished from  "state  Shinto."70  It  is  characterized  by  a  vague  sense 
of  primitive  adoration  for  things  wonderful,  and  can  hardly  be  called  a 
religion,  as  Chamberlain  rightly  says:  "The  first  thing  that  strikes  the 
student  is  that  what,  for  want  of  a  more  appropriate  name,  we  must  call 
the  religion  of  the  Early  Japanese,  was  not  an  organized  religion."71 
Knox  has  a  more  psychological  statement:  "It  is  not  superstition,  nor 
is  it  mere  custom,  nor  is  it  simply  the  arousing  of  the  aesthetic  nature. 
It  is  the  beginning  of  religion,  adoration,  and  dependence,  praise  and 
prayer,  faith  and  rite;  'not  knowing  what  it  is,'  but  only  that  in  the  soul 
there  is  a  sense  of  a  greater  than  self  which  we  joy  to  worship,  a  more 
powerful  than  self  on  which  we  must  depend."72  It  also  believes  in  the 
divine  descent  of  the  sovereign  who  commands  absolute  obedience  and 

88  The  subject  has  a  field  of  its  own,  and  to  go  into  it  in  detail  is  to  encroach  upon  the  area  of  com- 
parative religion.  It  is  only  necessary  here  to  review,  as  it  were,  some  of  the  more  significant  literature 
in  the  light  of  our  problem.'  Of  all  the  general  treatises  on  the  subject,  the  most  satisfactory  from  our 
point  of  view  is  that  of  Professor  G.  E.  Knox:  The  Development  oj  Religion  in  Japan,  New  York,  1907. 
President  T.  Harada's  lectures  on  The  Faith  oj  Japan,  published  in  New  York;  1914,  is  also  helpful.  W.  E. 
Griffis's  book  on  The  Religions  oj  Japan  is  a  very  useful  description  of  the  ethnic  religions. 

67  T.  Harada  regards  the  religious  life  of  Japan  as  an  organic  whole  by  calling  it  "The  Faith  of  Japan." 
See  Op.  cit.,  p.  2. 

68  These  five  are  by  no  means  exhaustive  nor  always  distinctly  analysable.  As  to  the  other  minor 
sects,  see  infra,  p.  16,  note  79. 

69  As  recorded  in  the  two  ancient  books:  Kojiki  (712  A.D.)  and  Nihongi  (720  A.D.). 

70  The  Christian  Movement  in  Japan,  1913,  Appendix  V. 

71  The  Kojiki,  translated  by  B.  H.  Chamberlain,  Translator's  Introductory,  Section  V,  p.  Iv. 

72  Op.  cit.,  p.  44. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF  THE  JAPANESE  15 

true  loyalty  from  all  his  subjects.  This  is  the  underlying  idea  of  modern 
patriotism  and  nationalism  which  so  strongly  binds  together  the  entire 
nation.     "It  came  to  be  the  strongest  force  in  the  history  of  the  nation, 

a  sacred  principle  inherited  from  'ages  eternal' It    has 

begotten  the  Yamato  Damashii,  the  proud  spirit  of  Japan,  shown  in 
absorbing  devotion  to  emperor  and  country,  being  the  supreme  force 
of  the  nation's  life  and  progress,  the  'Soul  of  Japan'."73  Psychologically 
interpreted,  this  represents  a  stage  of  infancy,  and  early  childhood 
perhaps,  in  the  genetics  of  religious  belief.  It  is  called  "primitive 
credulity"  by  Bain,  which  is  elaborated  by  Pratt.74  It  is  a  period  of 
fetishism,  of  hero-worship,  of  the  vague  sense  of  dependence  on  the  feeling 
of  something  bigger  than  self,  and  more  wonderful  than  ordinary  natural 
phenomena,  which  is  void  of  all  rational  content.  It  is  impulsive  and 
sentimental,  and  its  rites  greatly  resemble  the  magic  dances  of  the  lower 
races.75 

Shinto  is  not  entirely  free  from  equally  primitive  traits  which  we 
have  seen  to  be  the  characteristics  of  the  Yamato  religion.  The  literal 
meaning  of  the  term  Shinto  is  the  "Way  of  the  Gods,"76  and  its  funda- 
mental ideas  are  identical  with  those  of  the  ancient  primitive  cult, 
but  it  represents  a  step  higher  in  the  evolution  of  the  ethnic  religious 
consciousness.  The  basic  principle  is  the  notion  of  the  supremacy  of  the 
god-born  ruler  who  exhibited  his  power  by  mighty  conquest.  Herein 
lies  the  explanation  of  Shinto,  for  it  "is  the  natural  religion  of  the  people 
reorganized  and  completed  as  myth — that  is,  as  stories  with  an  object, 
and  this  object  is  the  support  of  the  Imperial  house  and  power."77 
It  exists  today  chiefly  as  an  official  cult,  and  assumes  an  air  of  being  the 
national  religion,  for  it  fosters  the  spirit  of  loyalty  and  patriotism  by 
appealing  to  the  sense  of  national  solidarity  and  performing  rites  in 
memory  of  the  divine  ancestors  of  the  emperor  and  great  subjects. 
Psychologically  viewed,  Shinto  represents  the  stage  of  myth-making, 
for  myth  "is  that  body  of  traditions  among  a  given  people  which  is  most 

73  G.  E.  Albrecht:  Loc.  cit.,  p.  2. 

74  J.  B.  Pratt:  The  Psychology  oj  Religious  Belief,  ppr  34  ff. 

76  Dr.  I.  Nitobe,  in  bis  lecture,  speaks  of  this  religion  as  follows:  " Our  simple  faith 

was  known  as  Kami-nagara,  a  word  which  defies  exact  translation,  since  the  first  of  the  component  terms, 
Komi,  commonly  rendered  god  or  deity,  fails  to  convey  the  meaning  originally  attached  to  it;  and  as  to 
second  term,  Nagara,  which  literally  consists  of  naku  and  aru,  'to  be  and  not  to  be,'  and  which  can  be 
approximately  rendered  'being  like  gods'  or  'being  in  a  state  of  godhood,' implies  the  original  innocence  of 
man."    The  Japanese  Nation,  1912,  pp.  122f. 

76  The  meaning  of  the  term  Shinto  is  given  by  Motoori,  the  great  Shinto  theologian,  (1730-1801). 
See  Aston:  Shinto:  The  Ancient  Religion  of  Japan,  pp.  6f. 

77  Knox:  Op.  cit.,  p.  47. 


16  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

closely  associated  with  their  ceremonials.  Such  mythology  moves 
quite  at  the  level  of  associative  trains  of  imagery  without  rational  form, 
yet  furnishes  the  psychological  milieu  within  which  the  dramatic  action 
lies."78  It  is,  too,  full  of  the  spirit  of  hero-worship,  for  the  object  of 
worship  was  not  a  moral  personality,  but  anything  distinguished  by 
extraordinary  strength  or  power,  and  not  by  moral  quality.79 

Buddhism  represents  psychologically  a  still  higher  stage  of  religious 
development;  yet  in  Japan,  the  change  from  Shinto  to  Butsudo  (the 
Way  of  Buddha)  was  not  a  gradual  one  as  in  the  case  of  the  development 
of  Shinto  out  of  the  primitive  religion.  Professor  Knox  remarks  on 
this  very  point  that  "we  do  not  study  in  this  change  a  slow  evolution, 
by  means  of  'resident  forces,'  but  a  conversion — not  growth,  but  regen- 
eration— for  thus  may  man's  nature  respond  to  external  influences 
and  more  will  be  accomplished  in  a  generation  than  otherwise  in  cen- 
turies."80 Buddhism  came  from  the  mainland  of  Asia  in  the  sixth 
century,  not  as  a  religion  as  such  but  as  a  present  from  one  sovereign 
to  another,  (it  prospered  tremendously  because  of  its  plasticability 
to  adjust  itself  to  the  varying  conditions  and  classes  of  people.81  The 
distinctive  feature  is  its  complexity  in  ceremonials,  canons,  creeds  and 
principles.  Its  principal  belief  is  in  the  impermanence  of  material 
things,  and  the  transmigration  of  the  human  soul.  It  distinguishes  two 
selves:  the  self  of  our  senses,  intellect,  emotion  and  will;  and  the  self 
which  has  the  world  beyond  as  its  objective.  The  salvation  of  man  is 
attained  when  this  latter  self  is  realized  by  meditation  and  suggestion. 
The  great  aspiration  of  a  devout  Buddhist  is  to  become  nothing, — 
unoccupied  with  things  of  the  present  world, — and  be  transformed  into 


a 


Buddha. 'A  Thus  it  appeals  to  intellect  instead  of  to  senses,  and  finds 
there  a  true  realization  of  the  Absolute.  The  grave  defect  of  Buddhism 
is  the  absence  of  any  definite  object  of  worship,  that  is,  it  has  no  true 

78  E.  S.  Ames:  The  Psychology  of  Religious  Experience,  p.  166. 

79  There  are  certain  degenerate  forms  of  Shinto,  which  are  by  some  called  sub-sects.  These  are: 
Kurozumi,  Shusei,  Taisha,  Fuso,  Taisei,  Jikko,  Shinshu,  Mitake,  Miharai,  Shinri,  Kinko,  Remmon  and 
Tenri,  the  last  of  which  is  the  most  popular.  For  the  exposition  of  these  sects,  see  Otis  Cary:  Japan  and 
its  Regeneration ,  1899,  pp.  49  f.;  articles  by  D.  C.  Greene  and  Arthur  Lloyd  in  the  Traus.  Asiat.  Soc,  Vol. 
XXIII  and  XXIV,  and  by  0.  Cary  in  the  Andovcr  Rev.,  June  1889. 

*°0p.  cit.,p.  82. 

81  This  plasticity  of  Buddhism  is  best  illustrated  in  the  formation  of  sects  and  sub-sects,  especially 
after  the  Civil  War,  namely,  in  the  twelfth  and  the  thirteenth  centuries.  Practically  all  of  these  sects 
exist  still  today,  and  at  least  twelve  sects  and  forty-nine  sub-sects  are  distinguishable.  It  is  also  note- 
worthy that  there  were  distinguishable  after  the  Civil  War  three  forms  of  Buddhism,  namely,  monastic 
Buddhism,  Bushido,  and  Amidaism.  The  first  was  the  religion  of  the  monk,  the  second  that  of  the 
warrior,  and  the  third  that  of  the  common  people.  Cf.  an  article  by  Arthur  Lloyd:  "Religion  of  Japan," 
The  Times,  Japan  Edition,  1910,  pp.  283  f. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  OF  THE  JAPANESE  17 

conception  of  God;  and  owing  to  its  intellectual  nature,  it  fails  to  reach 
the  rank  and  file  of  common  people  who  are  usually  incapable  of  under- 
standing the  true  spirit  of  Buddha.  This  leads  to  idolatry  which  is  often 
styled  Amidaism,  in  which  the  representation  of  Buddha  is  held  to  be 
the  incarnation  of  the  divine  personality.  It  requires  no  knowledge  and 
no  works  to  attain  salvation.  Belief  and  trust  in  Amida  is  the  sole 
condition  of  blessedness  and  peace. 

Confucianism  came  from  China  in  the  fifth  century  with  an  inestima- 
ble wealth  of  moral  and  philosophical  teachings.  It  can  hardly  be 
called  a  religion,  as  its  central  idea  is  a  perfectly  disciplined  gentleman 
who  educates  himself  by  learning  and  self -improvement.  The  funda- 
mental virtue  is  filial  piety.  The  rules  for  conduct  are  given  by  Confu- 
cius himself:  "A  noble-minded  man  has  four  rules  to  regulate  his  conduct: 
to  serve  one's  parents  in  such  a  manner  as  is  required  of  a  son;  to  serve 
one^s  sovereign  in  such  a  manner  as  is  required  of  a  subject;  to  serve 
one's  elder  brother  in  such  a  manner  as  is  required  of  a  young  brother; 
to  set  an  example  of  dealing  with  one's  friends  in  such  a  manner  as  is 
required  of  friends."82  According  to  Knox,  Confucianism  represents 
the  highest  point  in  the  religious  development  of  the  Japanese.  It 
found  the  Eternal  behind  the  temporal,  the  Changeless  in  the  midst  of 
change.  "All  nature  was  bound  together  with  a  golden  Chain  of  life, 
and  man  in  his  spiritual  and  moral  nature  was  its  representative.  .  .  . 
This  eternal  changeless  principle,  without  name  or  definition,  was  not 
conceived  as  pure  being  or  as  substance,  but  it  was  described  as  righteous- 
ness." It  is  not  realized  through  metaphysical  contemplation,  but  in 
actual  conduct  of  man  and  in  his  social  relationship.83 

From  the  standpoint  of  psychology,  this  stage  represents  a  very 
interesting  case  of  self -consciousness  or  personal  relationship  in  the  realm 
of  social  interaction.  Man,  in  the  course  of  his  development,  becomes 
social  by  the  interplay  of  objects  and  his  self.  But  the  concept  of  the 
personal-social,  rather  than  the  ideal-social,  is  the  necessary  precursor, 
after  the  stage  of  primitive  credulity  has  passed  away.  In  the  ancient 
Yamato  religion,  we  saw  what  corresponds  to  the  stage  of  early  infancy 
when  objects  are  vaguely  personalized  and  revered  with  a  spirit  of 
dependence  and  adoration.  In  Shinto  we  have  a  myth-making  stage 
and  the  legends  are  gradually  accumulated,  which  later  became  a  code 
of  ethics  and  articles  of  faith.  In  Buddhism  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment is  foreshadowed  and  the  Absolute  is  found  in  the  universe  and  this 

82  Quoted  by  Pung  Kwang  Yu:  "  Confucianism,"  World's  Parliament  of  Religions,  Vol.  I,  p.  4 15. 

83  Op.  oil.,  pp.  193  f. 


18  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

is  worshipped  by  contemplation.  In  Confucianism  we  have  a  system 
of  thought  which  makes  the  perfect  human  relationship  as  its  final 
goal,  indicating  thus  a  step  further  in  the  process  of  socialization  and 
maturity.  "Thus  did  man  in  Japan  pass  through  successive  stages 
from  the  recognition  of  that  which  is  immediately  perceptible  as  the 
highest  and  noblest,  to  the  apprehension  of  ideas  conceived  only  by 
the  mind  as  constituting  the  Absolute,  and  finally  to  the  worship  of 
benevolence,  righteousness,  and  truth,  made  known  to  us  through  con- 
science, and  realized  in  the  family,  in  society  and  the  state."84 

As  to  the  place  of  Christianity  in  the  religious  life  of  the  Japanese 
it  is  needless  to  waste  any  space  here,  for  this  is  partly  the  task  of  the 
present  treatise.  Historically  it  is  the  youngest  of  all  religions,  as  it 
was  in  the  sixteenth  century  that  it  came  in  the  form  of  Roman  Catholi- 
cism which  flourished  for  fifty  years  or  more  and  then  was  suppressed 
on  the  ground  of  disturbing  the  integrity  of  the  Empire.  Protestant 
Christianity  came  only  at  the  beginning  of  the  new  era  of  Meiji,  and, 
though  its  progress  is  not  remarkable,  it  is  gradually  gaining  ground 
in  the  spiritual  life  of  the  nation.  It  has  played  an  important  part  in 
introducing  modern  methods  of  philanthropy,  education,  and  various 
forms  of  social  service;  it  revolutionized  the  thought  life  of  the  nation 
and  gave  a  sound  world  view  and  a  proper  perspective  in  regard  to  human 
life  and  the  universe.  The  great  contribution  of  Christianity  to  Japan, 
however,  is  the  clear  conception  of  a  personal  God  which  alone,  as  we 
shall  endeavor  to  prove  in  a  later  section,  can  be  regarded  as  the  ultimate 
criterion  of  a  true  religion.  The  attainment  of  the  conception  of  such  a 
personal  being  in  the  realm  of  the  spirit  is  the  idealizing  process  carried 
to  its  last  degree,  and  represents  psychologically  the  highest  stage  in 
mental  development.85 

After  having  reviewed  briefly  the  essential  elements  of  the  religious 
life  of  Japan,  we  may  reach  a  tentative  conclusion  as  to  the  religiosity 
of  the  Japanese.  Perhaps  the  most  striking  deficiency,  we  may  say, 
is  found  in  the  conception  or  rather  the  misconception  of  deity  that  the 
Japanese  have  entertained  for  centuries  past.  There  is  no  distinct 
element  of  monotheism  in  which  personality  is  predominant.  While 
they  have  an  abundance  of  moral  concepts  and  philosophical  ideas, 
true  religious  ideals  seem  to  be  lacking.     The  socializing  process,  in  other 

84  Ibid.,  pp.  194  f. 

85  For  the  history  of  Christianity  in  Japan,  see  Otis  Cary:  A  History  of  Christianity  in  Japan,  New 
York,  1909,  2  Vols.;  E.  W.  Clement:  Christianity  in  Modern  Japan,  Philadelphia,  1905;  the  annual  reports 
entitled  Christian  Movement  in  Japan.  The  periodical  published  in  Japan,  The  Japan  Evangelist,  is  very 
important  in  this  connection. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  LITE  OF  THE  JAPANESE  19 

words,  has  not  yet  reached  the  point  of  idealization  where  the  personal 
deity  is  made  the  object  of  worship.  Their  conception  of  god  is  always 
in  terms  of  providence,  of  Kami,  of  virtue,  of  strength,  etc.,  where  the 
personal  element  is  absent.  Count  Okuma  characterizes  Japanese 
religiosity  as  follows: 

" the  Japanese  conception  of  deities — if  that  term  be  properly  applicable 

— does  not,  as  is  the  case  with  the  supreme  beings  of  religions  in  general,  involve  the 
idea  of  obedience  imposed  by  external  authority,  for  instead  of  rites  of  sacrifice  and 
prayer,  whereby  the  devotees  of  other  cults  invoke  blessings  for  themselves,  the 
Japanese  offer  to  their  ancestors  in  thanksgiving  the  first  fruits  of  the  harvest,  the 
members  of  each  family  assembling  in  their  invisible  presence  and  joyfully  commemo- 
rating their  own  callings  in  life."86 

Again  President  Harada  remarks: 

" Japanese  have  had  no  clear  conception  of  a  personal  God,  nor  even 

of  the  personality  of  man  himself.  It  follows  that  they  have  never  attained  to  an 
adequate  conception  of  the  worth  of  the  individual.  Sometimes  the  idea  of  duty  has 
been  confused  with  the  idea  of  submission  to  authority,  blessedness  has  been  identified 
with  happiness,  and  sin  has  been  confused  with  crime."87 

From  our  standpoint,  then,  although  Japan  is  not  lacking  in  systems  of 
religions,  the  general  religious  consciousness  is  not  yet  mature,  and  this 
is  precisely  the  reason  why  so  many  students  of  the  Japanese  people 
were  forced  to  maintain  the  non-religiosity  of  the  people.  This,  however, 
applies  only  to  the  general  situation  and  not  at  all  to  individual  cases, 
for  there  are  many  individuals  who  have  attained  that  idealizing  stage 
which  is  the  true  test  of  religiosity.  In  the  light  of  this  rapid  review 
of  the  religious  life  of  Japan,  then,  it  becomes  evident  that  Christianity 
has  a  definite  message  to  deliver,  and  to  the  consideration  of  this  message 
in  its  psychological  setting  we  must  now  turn. 

86  Fifty  Years  of  New  Japan,  edited  by  Count  Shigenobu  Okuma,  Vol.  I,  p.  4 

87  International  Review  of  Missions,  Vol.  I,  p.  85. 


CHAPTER  III 

The  Psychology  of  Conversion 
1.    the  definition  of  the  term 

The  term  conversion  is  generally  used  to  denote  a  sudden  change, 
largely  emotional  in  character,  that  comes  about  in  one's  religious  life. 
In  this  thesis,  however,  it  is  employed  to  mean  a  change  merely  from  the 
ethnic  religious  devotion  to  Christian  belief,  whether  emotional  and 
sudden  or  otherwise.  It  does  not  mean  for  us  then  that  the  pre-conver- 
sion  experience  is  necessarily  anti-  or  non-religious.  Our  subjects, 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  cases,  had  some  definitely  religious  experience, 
grounded  upon  appropriate  instruction  in  religious  practices  and  beliefs. 
For  some  reason  or  other,  they  had  been  forced  to  abandon  their  earlier 
beliefs  and  to  seek  a  new  faith  which  is  embodied  in  Christianity.  Our 
purpose  now  is  to  study  the  reasons  underlying  such  a  conversion  experi- 
ence. 

The  phenomena  of  conversion  present  a  variety  of  types,  but  only 
the  two  extremes  are  usually  noted,  namely,  "volitional"  and  "self- 
surrender"  types,  according  to  the  terminology  employed  by  Starbuck. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  there  is  an  endless  number  of  cases  which 
cannot  strictly  be  classed  with  either  of  these  two  types,  and  these 
unclassifiable  cases  will  be  found,  upon  careful  examination,  to  lie 
somewhere  between  them.  In  brief,  the  cases  of  conversion  present  a 
gradation  of  types  from  the  slowly  maturing  process  to  the  sudden 
alteration  of  interests  and  ends  of  life.  James  is  mainly  concerned  with 
cases  of  sudden  religious  conversion,  and  his  sole  reason  for  neglecting 
the  other  types  is  that  they  are  less  interesting,  or  perhaps  more  likely 
because  they  do  not  fit  in  with  his  theory  of  the  subconscious  element 
in  conversion.88  The  cases  collected  in  the  present  study,  on  the  con- 
trary, are  chiefly  those  of  gradual  transition  from  ethnic  faiths  or  merely 
ethical  training  into  the  faith  and  belief  in  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ. 

2.      THE  RELIGIOUS  TRAINING  OF  THE  JAPANESE  CONVERTS 

Starbuck,  in  his  study  of  pre-conversion  experience,  found  the  follow- 
ing factors,  both  physical  and  mental,  to  be  predominant:  sense  of  sin, 
feeling  of  estrangement  from  God,  desire  for  better  life,  depression, 
restlessness,  helplessness,  earnestness,  prayer,  tendency  to  resist  con- 
viction, doubts,  loss  of  sleep  or  appetite,  nervousness,  weeping,  affection 

88  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,  pp.  207  ff. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  21 

of  sight,  hearing  and  touch;  and  he  says:  "The  result  of  an  analysis 
of  these  different  shades  of  experience  coincides  with  the  common  desig- 
nation of  this  pre-conversion  state  in  making  the  central  fact  in  it  all 
the  sense  of  sin,  while  the  other  conditions  are  various  manifestations 
of  this,  as  determined,  first,  by  difference  in  temperament,  and,  second, 
by  whether  the  ideal  life  or  the  sinful  life  is  vivid  in  consciousness."89 
We  shall  see,  however,  that  in  the  majority  of  our  cases,  the  conclusion 
reached  by  Starbuck  holds  only  partially  true,  for  the  average  Japanese 
is  reared  in  a  religious  atmosphere  which  does  not  always  emphasize  the 
sense  of  sin,90  and  hence  it  is  absent  from  the  experiences  of  our  subjects. 
It  seems  probable  that  the  sense  of  sin  is  a  product  of  the  surroundings 
which  emphasize  it.91 

The  best  account  of  early  religious  training  is  given  in  the  following 

case: 

"My  family  belonged  to  the  warrior  class;  so  I  was  born  to  fight, — vivere  est  militare, — 
from  the  very  cradle.  ....  To  no  one  of  them  (parents  and  ancestors)  do 
I  trace  the  origin  of  my  'religious  sensibilities'  which  I  early  acquired  in  my  boyhood. 

My  father  was  a  good  Confucian  scholar,  who  could  repeat  from  memory 

almost  every  passage  in  the  writings  and  sayings  of  the  sage.  So  naturally  my  early 
education  was  in  that  line;  and  though  I  could  not  understand  the  ethico-political 
precepts  of  the  Chinese  sages,  I  was  imbued  with  the  general  sentiments  of  their 

teachings Side  by  side  with  these  and  other  instructions,  not  inferior,  I 

sincerely  believe,  to  those  which  are  imparted  to,  and  professed  by,  many  who  call 
themselves  Christians,  I  was  not  free  from  many  drawbacks  and  much  superstition. 
"The  most  defective  point  in  Chinese  ethics  is  its  weakness  when  it  deals  with 

sexual  morality But  no  retrospect  of  my  bygone  days  causes  in  me  a 

greater  humiliation  than  the  spiritual  darkness  I  groped  under,  laboriously  sustained 
with  gross  superstitions.  I  believed,  and  that  sincerely,  that  there  dwelt  in  each  of 
innumerable  temples  its  god,  jealous  over  its  jurisdiction,  ready  with  punishment  to  any 
transgressor  that  fell  under  his  displeasure.  The  god  whom  I  revered  and  adored  most 
was  the  god  of  learning  and  writing,  for  whom  I  faithfully  observed  the  twenty- 
fifth  of  every  month  with  due  sanctity  and  sacrifice.  I  prostrated  myself  before 
his  image,  earnestly  implored  his  aid  to  improve  my  handwriting  and  help  my  memory. 
Then  there  is  a  god  who  presides  over  rice-culture,  and  his  errands  unto  mortals  are 
white  foxes.  He  can  be  approached  with  prayers  to  protect  our  homes  from  fire  and 
robbery,  and  as  my  father  was  mostly  away  from  home,  and  I  was  alone  with  my 
mother,  I  ceased  not  to  beseech  this  god  of  rice  to  keep  my  poor  home  from  the  said 

89  The  Psychology  of  Religion,  p.  58;  cf.  also  table  IX  on  p.  63. 

90  Nitobe  speaks  of  Shinto  for  example  as  follows:  "Shinto  has  no  sympathy  with  the  doctrine  of 
original  sin,  and,  therefore,  with  the  fall  of  man.     It  has  implicit  faith  in  the  innate  purity  of  the  human 

soul In  fact,  Shinto  did  not  teach  us  to  pray  for  forgiveness  of  sins,  but  for  the  sweet  things  of 

life,  for  happiness,  but  not  for  blessedness."  The  Japanese  Xation,  pp.  123  f.  Shinto  recognizes  the 
evil  of  life,  but  it  is  rather  an  accident  than  an  inheritance. 

91  A  good  example  is  found  in  the  classical  incident  in  the  Edwardean  revival,  when  Edwards  preached 
a  woeful  sermon,  "On  Sinners  in  the  Hands  of  an  Angry  God." 


22  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

disasters.  There  was  another  god  whom  I  feared  more  than  all  others.  His  emblem 
was  a  black  raven,  and  he  was  the  searcher  of  man's  inmost  heart.  The  keeper  of  his 
temple  issued  papers  upon  which  ravens  were  printed  in  sombre  colors,  the  whole 
having  a  miraculous  property  to  cause  immediate  hemorrhage  when  taken  into  the 
stomach  by  anyone  who  told  a  falsehood.  I  often  vindicated  my  truthfulness  before 
my  comrades  by  calling  upon  them  to  test  my  veracity  by  the  use  of  a  piece  of  this 
sacred  paper,  if  they  stood  in  suspicion  of  what  I  asserted.  Still  another  god  exercises 
healing  power  upon  those  who  suffer  from  toothache.  Him  also  did  I  call  upon,  as  I 
was  a  constant  sufferer  from  this  painful  malady.  He  would  exact  from  his  devotee 
a  vow  to  abstain  from  pears  as  specially  obnoxious  to  him,  and  I  was,  of  course,  most 

willing  to  undergo  the  required  privation One  god  would  impose  upon 

me  abstinence  from  the  use  of  eggs,  another  from  beans,  till  after  I  made  all  my  vows, 
many  of  my  boyish  delicacies  were  entered  upon  the  prohibition  list.  Multiplicity  of 
gods  often  involved  the  contradiction  of  the  requirements  of  one  god  with  those  of 
another,  and  sad  was  the  plight  of  a  conscientious  soul  when  he  had  to  satisfy  more 
than  one  god.  With  so  many  gods  to  satisfy  and  appease,  I  was  naturally  a  fretful, 
timid  child.  I  framed  a  general  prayer  to  be  offered  to  every  one  of  them,  adding, 
of  course,  special  requests  appropriate  to  each,  as  I  happened  to  pass  before  each 
temple.  Every  morning  as  soon  as  I  washed  myself,  I  offered  this  common  prayer 
to  each  of  the  four  groups  of  gods  located  in  the  four  points  of  the  compass,  paying 
special  attention  to  the  eastern  groups,  as  the  rising  sun  was  the  greatest  of  all  gods. 
Where  several  temples  were  contiguous  to  one  another,  the  trouble  of  repeating  the 
same  prayer  so  many  times  was  very  great;  and  I  would  often  prefer  a  longer  route 
with  less  number  of  sanctuaries  in  order  to  avoid  the  trouble  of  saying  my  prayers 
without  scruples  of  conscience.  The  number  of  deities  to  be  worshipped  increased 
day  by  day,  till  I  found  my  little  soul  totally  incapable  of  pleasing  them  all.  But  a 
relief  came  at  last."92 

The  above  experience  points  out  the  existence  of  struggle  in  the  mind 

of  the  young  religious  devotee,  but  not  the  sense  of  sin.     This  situation 

is  somewhat  common  among  the  less  educated  class.     The  interpretation 

of  the  phenomenon  of  the  divided  self,  as  given  by  James,93  finds  its 

fitting  application  in  this  case.    Practice  of  a  similar  sort  is  found  in 

still  others.     Naruse  speaks  of  his  early  religious  customs  as  follows: 

"The  first  duty  of  the  day  was  to  worship  the  gods.  In  the  morning  I  used  to 
worship  the  god  of  heaven  and  earth,  the  god  of  water,  the  god  of  the  mountain,  the 
god  of  the  clan.  This  I  did  standing  outside  the  house.  Then  coming  in  I  worshipped 
the  spirits  of  my  ancestors  with  the  god  of  the  household.  We  had  not  only  gods  of 
agriculture,  medicine,  etc.,  but  a  god  to  care  for  each  particular  member  of  a  man's 
body;  such  as  a  god  of  the  eyes,  a  god  of  the  teeth,  etc.  In  all,  we  believed  in  several 
thousand  gods.  But  we  regarded  the  god  of  heaven  as  the  king  of  all  the  gods  and  the 
ruler  of  all  things.  But,  of  course,  the  idea  of  God  was  very  dim;  we  conceived  of  the 
invisible  world  of  gods  or  spirits  as  an  organized  society,  like  human  society.  As  a 
king  has  many  officers,  so  there  are  many  gods  of  every  kind  and  degree,  all  doing 
the  bidding  and  performing  the  work  of  the  God  of  Heaven.     We  thought  of  the  spirits 

92  K.  Uchimura:  Bow  I  Became  a  Christian,  1895,  pp.  3-9. 

93  Op.  cit.,Lect.  VIII. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  23 

of  these  gods  as  scattered  throughout  nature,  and  as  having  their  individual  dwelling- 
places  in  various  objects,  such  as  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  temple,  the  idol."94 

Again,  religious  devotion  similar  to  the  above  is  seen  in  the  case  of 
J.  H.  Neesima.     He  writes  of  his  mother  and  her  sickness  as  follows: 

"One  day  she  was  sick  in  bed;  I  was  very  anxious  for  her,  and  wished  to  procure 
some  remedy,  though  she  had  something  from  the  doctor.  So  I  went  to  the  temple 
and  prayed  to  the  god  that  he  would  cure  my  mother;  I  bought  a  little  bit  of  cake, 
which  was  a  portion  of  the  morning  offering,  and  gave  it  to  her  for  a  remedy,  hoping 
earnestly  that  it  might  do  some  good  to  her.  I  knew  not,  indeed,  whether  nature 
cured  her,  or  whether  her  will  or  faith  in  the  god  made  her  whole,  but  she  became 
better  soon  after  she  received  that  cake.  She  truly  believed  that  the  god  had  granted 
my  earnest  request  for  her,  and  restored  her  health  so  soon.  I  had  done  the  same 
thing  for  my  neighbors,  and  was  often  successful  in  curing  them."95 

Regarding  the  early  instruction  by  his  parents,  he  makes  the  following 
remarks: 

"I  was  obedient  to  my  parents,  and,  as  they  early  taught  me  to  do  so,  served 
gods  made  by  hand  with  great  reverence.  We  strictly  observed  the  days  of  my  ances- 
tors and  departed  friends,  and  we  went  to  the  graveyards  to  worship  their  spirits. 
I  often  rose  up  early  in  the  morning,  went  to  a  temple  which  was  at  least  three  and  a 
half  miles  from  home,  where  I  worshipped  the  gods,  and  returned  promptly,  reaching 
my  home  before  breakfast.  I  did  that  not  only  because  I  expected  some  blessing  from 
the  gods,  but  that  I  might  receive  praise  from  my  parents  and  neighbors."96 

Subject  M.  H.  relates  his  experience  as  follows: 

"My  home  was  on  the  average  level  of  any  country  home,  and  our  family  religion 
was  a  queer  combination  of  Buddhism  and  Shintoism.  My  grandmother  and  aunt 
were  especially  devoted  to  these  sects,  and  the  fact  that  they  observed  regularly  the 
rite  of  worship  every  morning  seems  to  have  had  a  considerable  influence  in  my  religious 
life.  Among  many  gods,  their  favorite  deity  was  the  Tenman-gu  (the  god  of  learning), 
and  during  the  period  of  examination  in  the  elementary  school,  they  prayed  to  this 
god  that  my  marks  might  be  high.  This  being  the  case,  I  became  much  devoted  to 
this  god.  I  do  not  remember  clearly  the  good  lessons  in  morals  that  our  elementary 
school  teacher  used  to  give  us  when  I  was  about  thirteen  years  of  age." 

Subject  J.  K.  has  the  same  type  of  experience : 

"My  family  belonged  to  Shingon  Sect  on  the  Buddhistic  side,  and  on  the  Shin- 
toistic  side  we  were  devoted  to  all  sorts  of  gods.  In  one  corner  of  the  house  was  a 
small  shrine,  and  on  festive  days,  there  shone  a  number  of  candles.  Near  our  house 
was  a  shrine  of  Inari,  the  guardian  god  of  the  district,  around  which  the  semi-annual 
festivity  was  observed.  Such  a  coexistence  of  Buddhism  and  Shintoism  was  not  a 
peculiarity  of  our  family  alone,  but,, was  common  among  all  families  of  the  district. 
My  people  had  no  definite  religious  conception  about  their  piety;  their  religion  was 
more  of  a  traditional  and  superstitious  nature.    My  mother  did  not  allow  any  of 

94  Jinzo  Naruse:  A  Modern  Paul  in  Japan,  1893,  p.  22. 

95  J.  D.  Davis:  A  Maker  of  New  Japan,  1894,  p.  16. 
**Ibid.,  pp.  16  f. 


24  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

us  to  eat,  until  she  had  finished  the  morning  offering  of  sacrificial  meal  to  the  deities. 
On  the  New  Year's  day  we  had  to  visit  three  or  four  temples,  and  on  the  day  of  semi- 
annual festivity,  we  invited  all  of  our  relatives  to  observe  it,  and  to  my  childish  mind 
religious  festivities  were  occasions  of  unusual  joy.  When  we  had  any  sickness  in  our 
family,  my  mother  used  to  consult  the  Shinto  priest,  in  whose  counsel  she  had  great 
confidence.  The  fact  which  I  still  now  remember  with  unusual  vividness  is  that  she 
prayed  to  her  god  for  three  years,  totally  inhibiting  her  smoking  habit  for  the  welfare 
of  my  eldest  brother.  When  her  wishes  were  granted  her  joy  knew  no  bound.  The 
Shinto  priest  used  to  visit  my  home  at  least  two  or  three  times  every  month,  and  when 
we  wanted  to  initiate  a  new  enterprise,  he  used  to  consult  the  oracle  for  its  probable 
outcome.  Thus  the  family  in  which  I  was  reared  was  full  of  religiously  rich  influences, 
though  much  of  them  was  merely  traditional." 

Subject  T.  M.  says: 

"The  religion  of  my  early  days  was  Shintoism;  the  moral  influence  was  summed 
up  in  the  phrase :  'self-control.'  My  father  was  a  believer  in  Shintoism,  with,  however, 
a  little  inclination  towards  Confucian  teachings,  while  my  mother  was  a  Buddhist. 
The  majority  of  my  relatives  were  Buddhists." 

Subject  S.  T.  says: 

"Buddhism,  Shintoism,  Ancestor-worship  and  polytheism  were  all  the  elements 
which  entered  into  my  early  religious  life.  There  was  no  unity  in  the  matter  of  the 
objects  of  worship  in  our  home.  I  was  influenced  by  polytheistic  belief  unconsciously 
and  came  to  know  that  that  was  the  only  form  in  which  one  can  become  pious.  I 
was  blindly  reverent." 

Subject  K.  W.  remarks: 

"My  father  was  a  Shinto  believer,  pious,  prayerful,  faithful  in  observing  religious 
ceremonies,  and  honest  in  his  business.  My  mother  was  a  Buddhist,  somewhat 
unsophisticated,  but  very  earnest  in  invoking  the  blessing  of  the  gods  particularly 
upon  her  deceased  ancestors.  In  such  a  vaguely  defined  religious  atmosphere,  I  early 
came  to  feel  the  power  which  was  beyond  human  apprehension,  and  which  was  govern- 
ing our  lives,  punishing  the  wicked  and  rewarding  the  righteous.  This  conception 
greatly  influenced  my  daily  conduct  and  persuaded  me  of  the  necessity  of  religion." 

The  above  cases  clearly  indicate  the  dependence  of  early  religious 
training  upon  polytheistic  superstition  of  a  very  primitive  type.  The 
more  refined  religious  culture  of  early  childhood  consists  in  the  Buddhis- 
tic training.  One  of  our  converts  from  Buddhism  relates  of  his  training 
as  a  Buddhist  priest  as  follows  Rev.  K.  Imai: 

"When  I  entered  the  Myooji  (a  temple  in  the  province  of  Kawachi  belonging  to 
the  Shingon  Sect),  I  was  only  twelve  years  old  and  had  just  finished  my  elementary 
school,  but  on  the  day  following  my  entrance,  I  began  the  study  of  Chinese  classics 
which  contributed  toward  my  general  culture,  and  in  the  afternoon  I  spent  my  time 
in  studying  the  Buddhist  scriptures.  I  almost  forgot  to  eat  and  sleep,  for  I  studied 
very  earnestly  and  hard.  In  February  of  the  following  year,  when  my  parents  and 
other  relatives  visited  me  in  the  temple,  I  was  initiated  into  the  order  of  Buddhist 
discipleship,  by  shaving  the  hair  on  my  head  and  donning  for  the  first  time  the  priestly 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  25 

gown From  this  time  on,  I  was  busy  with  my  Buddhistic  training, 

consisting  in  the  study  of  the  scriptures,  the  practice  of  Zazen,  Kwanbo,  Gyobo,  etc., 
until,  when  I  was  seventeen  years  of  age,  I  was  chosen  as  a  fellow  to  study  in  the  mon- 
astery at  Koyasan.  As  I  was  fully  prepared,  I  was  able  to  pass  all  the  examinations 
at  the  completion  of  one  year's  work,  whereas  others  were  required  to  stay  at  least  for 
five  years  before  they  are  entitled  to  examination.     I  returned  once  more  to  the 

Myooji  and  continued  the  study  of  the  Shingon  philosophy Later  I 

studied  the  secret  teachings  of  Shingon  for  three  years  in  Kyoto,  and  still  later  I 
studied  Immyoron  (Buddhist  logic)  in  Nara " 

The  above  is  the  professional  training  of  Buddhism,  but  the  more 
popular  training  consists  in  giving  to  the  child  such  parables  as  the  one 
our  subject  K.  Y.  relates: 

"During  my  early  life  I  was  influenced  greatly  by  Buddhism.  My  great-grand- 
parents and  grandparents  were  both  exceedingly  religious.  My  father  was  the  danto, 
that  is,  the  head  of  the  lay  members,  of  the  temple  of  the  Zen  Sect.  My  mother 
was  also  an  earnest  Buddhist.  While  my  grandparents  taught  me  how  to  worship 
the  images  of  Buddha  and  the  minor  gods,  my  parents  explained  to  me  some  typical 
sermons  and  parables  of  Buddhism,  emphasizing  the  moral  principles  of  life.  One 
of  these  parables  was  the  story  of  the  Dry  Well  which  runs  as  follows: 

"  'While  a  traveler  was  crossing  a  desert,  he  encountered  a  wild  elephant  which 
began  to  chase  him.  Greatly  frightened  the  traveler  ran,  but  he  could  find  neither 
house  nor  tree  which  would  serve  as  protection.  A  little  later,  however,  he  came  to  a 
dry  well.  As  he  looked  into  this  cistern,  he  saw  an  ivy  twisting  about  over  the  inner 
wall  of  the  well  and  he  hurriedly  clung  to  it.  Meanwhile,  the  angry  elephant  stretched 
his  trunk  and  tried  to  get  hold  of  the  poor  traveler.  The  man  lowered  himself  down 
by  means  of  the  ivy,  but  as  he  looked  down  at  the  bottom  of  the  well,  he  saw  there  a 
gigantic  snake!  The  trunk  of  the  elephant  was  above  his  head  and  the  tongue  of  the 
monster  snake  under  his  feet.  With  fear  and  trembling  the  poor  man  turned  his 
eyes  to  the  interior  of  the  wall;  and  there  he  saw  a  field  abloom  with  innumerable 
varieties  of  beautiful  flowers.  The  only  hope  for  this  unfortunate  man  was  the  ivy. 
But  alas!  Two  mice — one  black  and  one  white — emerged  from  the  crevice  of  the 
wall  and  began  to  gnaw  the  ivy  to  which  he  was  so  faithfully  committing  the  destiny 
of  his  life.' 

"Interpreting  this  parable,  my  parents  would  say  that  we  all  are  chased  by  Satan 
and  the  grave  is  awaiting  us.  We  are  clinging  to  the  ivy  which  is  called  'life,'  but,  like 
the  black  and  white  mice,  night  and  day  are  shortening  unceasingly  the  limited  span 
of  our  life.  Worldly  flowers  are,  of  course,  blooming  enticingly  along  life's  pathway, 
but  we  should  not  take  delight  in  them.  My  parents  strictly  prohibited  the  use  of 
strong  drink,  tobacco  and  card  playing.  They  insisted  that  we  should  look  up  to 
Buddha  who,  with  a  golden  crown  upon  his  brow  and  his  holy  limbs  attired  in  the  garb 
of  Indian  silk,  is  ever  ready  to  help  man  in  the  dry  well,  by  outstretching  a  bamboo 
stick  to  his  rescue.  Thus  I  lived  in  an  exceedingly  religious  atmosphere  during  my 
early  days." 

A  similar  Buddhistic  training  is  seen  in  the  case  of  S.  M.: 

"I  do  not  remember  as  to  the  religiosity  of  my  father,  but  if  my  recollection  is 
correct  he  was  an  earnest  Buddhist  believer.     But  later  he  became  indignant  over  the 


26  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

fact  that  his  priest  neglected  some  sacramental  practice  to  our  ancestors,  and  was 
converted  to  Shintoism.  As  to  the  religion  of  my  mother,  it  was  more  of  a  traditional 
affair  and  nothing  conscientious  on  her  part.  When  I  became  heir  to  the  valuable 
possessions  of  my  family,  I  discovered  to  my  great  delight  that  my  family  was  of 
Samurai  origin.  Then  I  used  to  hear  of  my  ancestors  who  were  earnest  followers  of 
Buddha,  and  of  their  achievements  in  copying  the  manuscripts  of  the  Buddhistic 
canon  and  in  carving  some  images  for  the  benefit  of  the  thirty-three  temples  in  the 
western  provinces.     Whenever  I  heard  of  these  facts,  I  felt  something  mysterious  and 

wonderful  and  profound  in  the  teachings  of  Buddha But  the  man  who 

led  me  into  the  faith  in  Buddha  more  than  anyone  else  was  my  brother-in-law,  who 
showed  me  some  really  effective  examples  of  Buddha's  power.  Immediately  after  his 
marriage  he  used  to  leave  his  wife  and  go  to  Kyoto  for  the  sake  of  practicing  Zazen,  or 
to  contemplate  quietly  in  his  own  study,  or  to  read  very  quietly  some  passages  from  the 
sacred  writings  and  religio-ethical  poems  of  To-so.  Whenever  I  noticed  such  prac- 
tices indicative  of  his  religiosity,  I  used  to  feel  in  my  mind  an  inclination  to  enter  into 
the  Ways  of  Buddha,  and  often  I  was  wont  to  study  tenaciously  the  catechism  of  the 
Zen  Sect,  and  at  times  I  contemplated  even  becoming  a  Buddhist  priest " 

Another  example  is  the  experience  of  T.  Kobayashi,  as  narrated  by 

N.  Kato: 

"Mr.  Kobayashi  seems  to  have  had  a  favorable  inclination  toward  religion  from 
the  time  of  his  boyhood.  His  father  was  a  Buddhist  believer  of  Shin  Sect,  and  Mr. 
Kobayashi  may  be  said  in  a  way  to  be  a  born  Buddhist.  This  is  confirmed  by  his 
ability  to  reproduce  with  ease  some  of  the  important  Buddhist  literature  which  he 
had  learned  while  still  tender  in  age  and  memory.  At  twelve  years  of  age,  he  was 
seriously  troubled  with  his  eyes,  and  was  almost  on  the  verge  of  losing  his  sight.  He 
then  frequented  a  temple  in  the  distant  mountain  and  prayed  earnestly  for  his  recov- 
ery. But  such  a  form  of  religious  practice  he  soon  came  to  feel  inadequate.  He  had 
very  little  patience  with  superstition  and  was  eager  to  find  a  true  faith  to  satisfy  his 
religious  longing.  It  is  evident  that  the  religious  customs  of  the  Shin  Sect  was  a 
preparation  for  a  higher  form  of  worship  in  later  years."97 

A  case  of  liberal  Buddhistic  atmosphere  is  seen  in  subject  M.  Ka. : 

"My  family  belonged  to  the  Shin  Sect  which  was  known  as  the  least  formal  of  all 
Buddhist  sects.  My  father  was  exceedingly  liberal  and  hated  all  hypocritical  religious 
ceremonials.  The  chief  incident  responsible  for  his  assuming  such  an  attitude  was 
the  death  of  my  mother,  which  occasioned  him  severe  trial.  Moreover,  he  had  really 
no  time  to  waste  upon  religious  formalities.  Therefore,  I  was  brought  up  entirely 
free  from  the  odor  of  any  incense.  Moreover,  my  father  was  strict  to  the  last  degree, 
and  had  little  sympathy  with  the  laissez-faire  mode  of  living,  but,  as  I  recall,  he  had 
an  abundance  of  paternal  affection  toward  me." 

Subject  R.  H.  remarks: 

"My  father  was  a  devout  Buddhist,  not  of  dogmatic  but  of  pragmatic  type,  and 
used  to  have  visions  of  Yakshi  Niorai;  our  family  belonged  to  the  Shin  Sect  but  my 
father  used  to  attend  a  Tendai  temple.  He  was  sentimental  and  paganly  pious. 
I  was  his  favorite  son;  consequently  his  influence  was  great.     My  innocent  childhood 

97  N.  Kato:  The  Life  of  Tomijiro  Kobayashi,  Tokyo,  1911,  Ch.  IX. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  27 

was  spent  in  pagan  culture,  devoutly  worshipping  at  any  temple, — reverence  and  the 
spirit  of  worship  being  largely  induced  by  my  father's  influence.  At  the  age  of  eleven 
or  twelve,  I  once  heard  an  itinerant  Christian  preacher  in  the  village.  The  impression 
was  so  slight  that  I  remember  nothing  about  his  sermon,  but  I  well  remember  a  beau- 
tiful card  he  then  gave  me.    It  was  a  picture  of  doves  and  flowers  with  a  verse:  'God 

so  loved  the  world ,'  which  I  used  to  mumble  without  knowing  its 

meaning." 

Subject  Y.  B.  says: 

"My  family  was  of  the  Shingon  Sect,  but  the  relation  to  the  temple  was  very 
slight.  We  only  contributed  our  offerings  two  or  three  times  a  year,  and  the  priest 
used  to  visit  our  home  to  offer  prayers  and  read  the  scriptures.  Thus  the  religious 
influence  of  my  home  was  merely  nominal.  My  grandmother  was  a  pious  woman 
and  used  to  take  me  to  temples  and  shrines  while  I  was  very  young  and  my  religious 
inclination  began  to  arise  about  this  time.  But  my  religion  was  little  more  than  the 
prayer  for  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  my  home;  and  I  never  passed  by  a  temple 
without  having  a  spirit'  of  reverence.  After  entering  the  grammar  school,  I  visited 
temples  less  frequently.  From  this  time  on  I  believed  in  Monju-Bosatsu  and  Uji- 
Gami,  and  prayed  for  the  advancement  of  my  study  and  learning.  My  uncle  was  a 
priest  of  the  Shingon  Sect,  but  his  influence  upon  me  was  very  slight.  The  moral 
instruction  I  received  in  the  grammar  school  made  me  see  the  necessity  of  relating 
one's  faith  to  his  conduct,  for  I  used  to  know  a  pious  man  who  was  immoral.  At 
the  same  time  I  came  to  know  that  God  would  not  listen  to  prayers  of  evil-minded 
believers.  When  I  was  twelve  years  of  age,  my  mother  died,  and  my  father  followed 
her  three  years  later.  At  that  time  I  used  to  look  up  to  the  priests  and  committed  to 
memory  the  scriptural  passages  they  used  to  teach.  What  made  me  somewhat 
impatient,  however,  was  the  fact  that  they  did  not  give  me  a  word  of  comfort.  My 
great  sympathizers  were  the  friends  and  relatives,  and  I  began  to  regard  the  priests 
as  useless  creatures." 

Subject  T.  H.  says: 

"My  parents  and  my  relatives  were  all  Buddhists,  and  my  early  religious  training 
was  decidedly  Buddhistic.  I  used  to  repeat  the  Buddhist  scriptures  without  under- 
standing their  meanings." 

Subject  K.  T.  remarks: 

"I  was  born  in  a  Buddhist  (Shingon  Sect)  family.  My  grandmother  was  very 
religious,  but  the  rest  of  the  family  were  somewhat  indifferent.  My  grandfather 
looked  at  all  religious  formalities  with  contempt." 

Still  another  type  of  religious  atmosphere  is  where  the  Confucian 

influence  predominates,  and  this  is  usually  fostered  by  the  more  educated 

class.    The  majority  of  eminent  Christian  workers  in  Japan  today 

come  from   these  surroundings.    We  may  here  make  some  lengthy 

quotations  from  various  sources.    A  very  thorough  description  of  the 

ethical  instruction  based  on  Confucian  teaching  is  given  by  J.  Naruse 

in  his  biography  of  Paul  Sawayama: 

"The  morality  of  the  time  was  a  somewhat  peculiar  one,  which  came  from  an 
alloy  of  Japanese  Shintoism  and  Confucianism  and  Buddhism  which  were  imported  from 


28  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

China The  first  duty  was  the  religious  one — to  obey  the  decrees  of  heav- 
en, and  to  serve  the  spirits  of  ancestors.  The  most  familiar  obligation  was  that  of 
obeying  the  decree  of  heaven :  'What  heaven  had  conferred  is  called  nature;  an  accord- 
ance with  this  nature  is  called  the  path  of  duty;  the  regulation  of  this  path  is  called 
instruction.'  The  next  duty  was  that  of  'Gorin,'  or  the  duty  of  five  relations.  These 
five  relations  were,  first,  the  relation  between  master  or  prince  and  servant;  second, 
that  between  father  and  son;  third,  that  between  man  and  wife;  fourth,  between 
brethren;  fifth,  that  between  friends One  sentiment  which  from  child- 
hood we  were  taught  to  repeat  was  this:  'What  you  do  not  want  done  to  yourself, 

do  not  do  it  to  others' Our  chief  negative  commandments  were:  Do 

not  lie,  do  not  steal,  do  not  covet.     And  the  training  which  we  received  in  the  keeping 

of  these  was  constant  and  emphatic We  were  taught  that  if  we  spoke 

a  lie  we  would  receive  punishment  from  God  in  this  world,  and  in  the  next  world  our 

tongues  would  be  cut  out  of  our  mouths I  will  say  in  a  word  how  we  were 

taught  to  examine  our  hearts  and  to  keep  our  conscience  active.  When  I  was  tempted 
to  sin  in  the  darkness,  I  repeated  these  words:  'Heaven  knows,  as  I  know,  and  earth 
knows;  I  cannot  escape  from  a  net  of  heaven;  there  is  nothing  more  visible  than  what  is 
secret,  and  nothing  more  manifest  than  what  is  minute;  therefore,  the  superior  man  is 
watchful  over  himself  when  he  is  alone.'  Such  precepts  as  the  following  were  helpful 
in  our  efforts  to  examine  ourselves,  and  repent  of  our  faults:  T  daily  examine  myself 
on  three  points:  whether  in  transacting  business  for  others  I  may  have  been  unfaithful; 
whether  in  intercourse  with  friends  I  may  have  been  insincere;  whether  I  have  mastered 
and  practiced  the  instruction  of  my  teachers "98 

The  boykood  of  Rev.  H.  Kozaki  is  very  full  of  Confucian  trainings: 

"From  the  beginning,  I  was  trained  in  Chinese  classics,  and  when  I  was  fifteen 
years  old,  I  was  quite  conversant  with  Shisho,  Gokyo,  Saden,  Shiki,  Rekishi-Kokan, 

Tsukan-Konwku,  etc The  words  of  Shonan  Yokoi,  which  he  gave  as  a 

note  of  warning  to  his  two  nephews  on  their  departure  for  America,  embodied  the 
ideal  of  that  period : 

'With  full  apprehension  of  the  ways  of  Gioshun  and  Koshi, 

Learn  the  arts  of  Western  civilization. 

Why  content  with  our  own  enriched  land  and  efficient  arms? 

We  must  extend  our  righteousness  to  all  the  world.' 
The  Confucian  ethics  and  the  Occidental  learning,  if  we  possess  these  two,  constituted 
the  basis  of  firm  belief  that  there  can  be  no  better  combination  for  spiritual  equipment. 
Thus,  though  we  studied  the  physical  sciences  of  the  West,  we  never  thought  of  adopt- 
ing its  ethics  or  religion.  On  the  contrary,  we  even  attempted  to  Confucianize  the 
Occidentals,  and  more  than  once,  we  argued  with  Captain  Janes  with  the  weapon  of 
Confucian  precepts."99 

Subject  Sh.  M.  relates  of  his  Confucian  training  as  follows: 

"My  family  religion  was  the  Shin  Sect  of  Buddhism.     My  father  was  the  retainer 

of  the  Mori  family,  and  of  staunch  Samurai  blood.     His  idea  of  educating  his  children, 

however,  was  influenced  by  Confucianism.     When  I  was  seven  years  old,  I  was  taught 

the  Daigaku,  and  by  the  time  I  reached  the  sixth  grade,  I  advanced  to  the  Shiki 

98  J.  Naruse:  A  Modern  Paid  in  Japan,  pp.  17,  19-22. 

99  H.  Kozaki:  My  Experiences  of  Twenty-five  Years. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  29 

The  teachings  of  Confucius  and  of  Buddhism  left  on  me  a  tremendous  impression, 
though  unconsciously,  on  my  boyish  brain.  Regulations  regarding  conduct  and 
etiquette  were  often  so  painful  that  I  could  hardly  bear  them.  My  mother  had 
passed  away  to  the  world  beyond  when  I  was  only  five  years  old  and  consequently 
I  have  no  knowledge  of  maternal  affection.  I  had  no  religion  of  my  own,  but  I  was 
deeply  moved  while  listening  to  the  priest  reading  the  Gobnnsho  written  by  Shinran." 

As  distinguished  from  the  training  which  is  apparently  religious,  some 
young  men  were  brought  up  in  a  non-religious  or  even  anti-religious  at- 
mosphere: 

"I  was  brought  up  in  a  non-religious  environment.  The  only  principle  which 
was  entertained  by  my  immediate  friends  was  Bentham's  Utilitarianism.  Thus 
religion  was  to  me  a  synonym  for  superstition,  and  I  never  took  an  active  interest  in 
anything  related  to  religion."100 

" I  have  as  a  whole  no  scholastic  attainment,  but  in  the  course  of 

my  life,  I  have  become  conversant,  more  or  less,  with  current  philosophical  thought, 
both  Oriental  and  Occidental.  From  the  standpoint  of  character,  I  was  a  victim  of 
sensuality,  and  had  no  such  virtue  as  self-control.  I  was  very  unfavorably  disposed 
towards  all  forms  of  religious  belief,  and  especially  was  I  hostile  towards  the  Christian 
religion."101 

"In  my  boyhood  days,  my  parents,  having  no  definite  religious  inclination,  I 
did  not  receive  religious  education  of  any  kind.  The  moral  atmosphere  of  my  home 
was  that  of  the  ancient  song: 

The  god  blesseth 

Not  him  who  prayeth, 

But  him  whose  heart  strayeth 

Not  from  the  way  of  Makoto.102 

From  six  to  fifteen,  I  received  education  under  a  scholar  in  Chinese  classics,  and  I 
thought  the  function  of  man  was  to  aim  at  peace  in  society  and  in  the  state.  My 
boyish  ambition  was  to  regulate  my  personal  conduct,  to  place  my  home  on  a  peaceful 
basis,  and  to  administer  justice  in  the  world  by  mastering  the  teachings  of  the  ancient 
sages."     (Subject  H.  S.) 

"  I  did  not  receive  any  definitely  religious  training.  The  moral  instruction  was  an 
informal  one.  I  was  reared  in  a  decidedly  Japanese  atmosphere,  and  the  educational 
influence  which  surrounded  my  boyhood  was  to  mould  a  typically  Japanese  character. 
In  it  were  the  elements  of  'loyalty  to  the  sovereign,'  of  'filial  piety,'  and  of  'duty.' 
The  stories  relative  and  illustrative  of  these  elements  were  very  effective  in  my  early 
days,  and  aroused  in  me  a  high  aspiration.  Strictly  speaking,  my  parents  were  irre- 
ligious, but  in  a  broad  sense,  they  had  their  own  religion,  and  that  religion  was  the 
spirit  of  'self-confidence.'  It  was  the  Kokoro,  the  conscience,  as  the  moralist  would 
style,  which  was  honored  as  the  criterion  of  righteousness.  This  may  seem  primitive, 
but  it  was  fundamental  from  their  point  of  view."     (Subject  T.  U.) 

100  Yasutaro  Naide,  in  the  Christian  World,  No.  1180  (1906),  p.  9. 

101  Taro  Ando:  The  Slory  of  My  Conversion  in  Hawaii,  Tokyo,  15th  ed.,  1910,  p.  2. 

102  A  Japanese  couplet  written  by  Michizane.  The  term  "Makoto"  means  literally  truth  or  reality, 
i.  e.  the  essence  of  things.     It  forms  the  very  foundation  of  moral  concepts. 


30  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

Sometimes  the  atmosphere  assumes  an  intellectual  and  moral  aspect, 
and  this  necessarily  takes  from  the  home  life  all  practices  and  customs 
of  religious  devotion.     Subject  Y.  O.  says: 

"My  grandparents  were  of  the  thorough-going  Samurai  class,  and  my  parents 
were  trained  in  a  knightly  atmosphere.  They  were,  however,  very  liberal  and  did 
not  adhere  to  any  religious  sect.  My  father  was  responsive  to  the  call  of  modern 
liberalism,  and  educated  one  of  his  sons  in  Russian,  while  my  younger  brother  and  I 
were  taught  English.  My  family  descended  to  the  rank  of  the  common  people,  and 
traveling  through  America  and  China,  championed  the  cause  of  liberalism.  My 
mother  was  an  efficient  home-ruler  in  the  absence  of  my  father;  and  we  children 
spent  our  youthful  days  in  an  affectionate  home  environment,  but  we  do  not  remember 
our  attending  church  or  temple  services.  I  only  recall,  though  very  vaguely,  frequent 
visits  to  temples  accompanying  my  grandmother.  I  do  not  know  anything  of  my 
parents'  religion.  I  only  heard  of  my  mother's  adherence  to  the  Hokke  Sect  of  Budd- 
hism." 

"I  had  no  particular  religion  in  my  childhood.  My  training  was  more  of  Bushido 
than  anything  else.  The  moral  precepts  that  my  mother  used  to  give  me  were  those 
of  Buddhism,  for  my  parents  were  Buddhist  believers."     (Subject  H.  T.) 

Occasionally,  among  the  converts,  we  find  cases  where  home  and  other 
social  surroundings  of  their  youthful  days  were  permeated  with  Christian 
influence.  Among  these  subjects,  the  sudden  religious  awakening  is 
almost  absent.  The  gradual  development  is  the  more  frequent 
experience. 

"My  home  condition  was  different  from  the  average  Japanese  family.  My  father 
has  been  a  minister  of  the  Gospel  for  the  last  forty  years.  Although  I  was  not  com- 
pelled to  go  through  the  routine  of  moral  instruction  or  training,  I  grew  up  in  a  Chris- 
tian environment,  and  my  religious  views  had  developed  gradually  and  naturally." 
(Subject  M.  K.) 

"When  I  was  seven  years  old  I  began  to  go  to  the  Sunday  School  where  I  received 
my  Christian  training  until  I  left  for  America.  I  used  to  assist  in  the  work  of  that 
Sunday  School  by  teaching  a  class  at  times.  During  this  period  I  encountered  much 
opposition  and  persecution,  which  originated  from  my  older  friends  and  school- 
mates. Some  of  them  refused  to  associate  with  me  and  others  exercised  physical 
violence  upon  me.  In  midst  of  all  these  oppositions,  my  mother  alone  was  on  my 
side  and  comforted  me  in  those  days  of  my  boyish  faith,  and  I  attended  the  Sunday 
School  without  ceasing.  This  practice  had  a  great  influence  in  strengthening  my 
faith.  In  matters  of  moral  discipline,  my  father  was  very  strict,  and  this  had  a  good 
effect  in  developing  in  us  a  good  manner  in  speech  and  behavior.  He  had  no  religion 
of  his  own;  he  followed  Confucian  teachings,  not  for  their  religious  merits  but  only 
for  their  moral  usefulness.  My  mother  was  a  woman  of  many  paradoxes.  While 
she  encouraged  her  children  to  be  influenced  by  Christianity,  she  herself  was  a  jealous 
adherent  of  the  old  traditional  view  of  life.  She  was  of  the  opinion  that  it  is  below 
human  dignity  to  know  anything  about  calculation  of  money.  Thus,  if  she  had  to 
purchase  vegetables  or  fish  in  front  of  her  children,  she  would  simply  ask  the  vender 
to  give  her  the  goods  desired  and  promise  to  pay  later  when  the  children  were  not  the 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  31 

spectators  of  the  bartering  act.  Again,  I  remember  on  one  festive  day,  I  made  fun 
of  a  drunkard  on  the  street.  At  first  he  was  of  good  humor,  but  our  continued  ridicule 
caused  him  to  chase  us  and  I  was  finally  caught  in  front  of  my  house.  I  apologized 
and  begged  his  pardon  in  order  to  escape  any  violent  revenge  from  his  hands.  As 
my  mother  watched  this  scene,  she  was  greatly  disappointed,  for  she  would  tell  me 
it  is  not  worthy  of  a  Samurai's  son  to  beg  the  pardon  of  a  street  drunkard."  (Sub- 
ject Y.  I.) 

"My  parents  were  Buddhist  believers,  though  not  very  devoted.  They  were 
reared  in  the  atmosphere  of  Bushido,  and  they  had  a  profound  regard  for  the  teachings 
of  Confucius  and  Mencius.  Their  taste  for  literature  and  art  was  excellent  and  had 
a  habit  of  cleanliness  and  good  house-government.  I  was  greatly  influenced  by  their 
ways  of  life  and  received  good  training  from  the  precepts  of  Confucius  and  Mencius." 
(Subject  S.  S.) 

In  examining  the  data  given  above  of  the  early  religious  and  moral 
training  which  the  Japanese  converts  had  experienced,  we  are  impressed, 
first  of  all,  by  its  somewhat  unnatural  completeness,  reaching  in  some 
case  almost  to  a  degree  of  precosity.  It  may  be  said,  however,  that  the 
average  Japanese  parent  had  very  inadequate  ideas  as  to  the  develop- 
ing organism  of  the  child,  and  it  was  not  uncommon  to  see  difficult 
Chinese  classics  and  moral  codes,  written  by  such  masters  as  Confucius 
and  Mencius,  forming  at  least  a  part  of  the  curriculum  of  home  educa- 
tion. In  the  second  place,  we  are  to  note  a  queer  combination  of  diverse 
elements  that  go  to  make  up  the  religious  and  moral  atmosphere  of 
Japan.  There  are  very  few  families  where  any  one  religion  enjoys 
the  undivided  devotion  of  the  household  members.  This  may  be 
explained  on  the  basis  of  the  long  cultural  history  that  these  component 
religions  have  had  in  Japan.  They  are  so  ingrained  in  the  minds  of  the 
Japanese  that  they  are  not  able  to  separate  them  entirely  one  from  the 
other.  There  is,  in  the  third  place,  an  agnostic  element  in  the  early 
surroundings  of  the  Japanese  youths,  and  this  shades  off  into  the  decidedly 
anti-religious  trend.  But,  in  the  fourth  place,  we  note  the  Christian 
influence  that  is  slowly  creeping  into  the  religious  life  of  the  Japanese. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  moral  training,  we  note  that  the  predominant 
spirit  is  that  of  Bushido,  the  Soul  of  Japan.  Confucian  influence  in 
moral  conduct  has  much  weight,  together  with  the  ethnic  habits  of 
cleanliness,  strictness,  politeness,  etc.  With  this  rather  rapid  analysis 
of  the  youthful  days  of  our  converts,  we  will  now  turn  to  the  change 
that  comes  into  their  lives. 


32  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

3.      THE  INTELLECT  IN  CONVERSION 

It  is  now  a  well  known  fact  that  the  religious  experience  involves 
the  totality  of  the  psychic  life,  and  that  no  single  element  can  be  detached 
to  account  for  any  of  the  products  of  the  religious  consciousness.103 
Yet  it  is  an  undeniable  fact  that  individuals  differ  in  the  matter  of 
choosing  the  avenue  through  which  they  enter  the  sacred  precinct  of 
religious  life.  The  aim  of  the  religious  psychologist  in  treating  the 
subject  of  intellect  is  not  to  find  evidence  for  the  place  of  intellect  in 
the  religious  consciousness,  but  rather  to  find  an  explanation  for  the 
fact  that  it  involves  the  intellectual  element  in  more  or  less  degree.  It 
is  with  this  purpose  in  mind  that  we  Venture  to  undertake  the  discussion 
in  this  section. 

It  has  been  argued  frequently  that  the  psychology  of  mental  types 
explains  the  predominance  of  intellect  in  one  set  of  individuals  and  the 
lack  of  it  in  another.  This,  however,  is  not  wholly  satisfactory.  Only 
very  recently,  Professor  Dawson  launched  an  ingenious  scheme  of 
classifying  the  religious  consciousness  of  individuals  according  to  the 
two  types  and  their  subdivisions.104  The  two  types  that  he  finds  in  his 
investigations  are  the  object-minded  and  the  subject-minded.  The 
former  divides  itself  into  the  sensory-motor  types  and  the  sensory- 
reflective-motor  or  the  balanced  type;  the  latter  is  divided  into  sensory- 
reflective  and  the  reflective-motor  types.  Applying  this  system  of  classi- 
fication to  the  facts  of  religious  life,  he  says: 

"The  objective-minded  individual  conceives  of  God,  Heaven,  the  soul,  righteous- 
ness, salvation,  etc.,  under  their  more  concrete  and  dynamic  aspects;  while  the  sym- 
bolic-minded (subjective)  individual  conceives  of  them  under  their  more  abstract 
and  static  aspect.  God  and  the  human  soul,  for  the  objective-thinker,  are  essentially 
immanent.  Such  a  thinker  finds  it  hard  to  understand  the  transcendent  conception 
of  these  great  entities  of  human  thought.  On  the  other  hand,  the  symbolic  thinker 
conceives  of  God  and  the  human  soul  as  essentially  transcendent,  and  considers  the 
object-minded  thinker's  disposition  to  relate  God  to  the  forces  of  nature,  and 
the  human  soul  to  physiological  processes,  as  pantheistic  and  materialistic.  Right- 
eousness, sin,  and  salvation,  for  the  object-minded  religionist,  are  qualities  of  dynamic 
character;  for  the  symbolic-minded  religionist,  they  are  rather  forms  of  adjustment 
to  religious  standards,  and  have,  to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  a  symbolic  meaning. 
Religion,  in  short,  for  the  object-minded  individual  is  a  mode  of  life;  while  for  the 
symbolic-minded  individual,  it  is  primarily  and  essentially  a  mode  of  belief,  faith  or 
feeling.  The  symbolic-minded  individual,  in  his  religious  experiences,  worships 
the  Word;  the  object-minded  individual,  the  Deed."115 

103  E.  S.  Ames:  The  Psychology  of  Religious  Experience,  pp.  279 ff. 

104 G.  E.  Dawson:  "Suggestions  for  the  Inductive  Study  of  the  Religious  Consciousness,"  Journ.  of 
Rel.  Psychol,  and  Educ.,  Vol.  VII  (1913),  pp.  50-58. 
106  Pp.  55  f. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  33 

Dawson  applied  this  scheme  to  the  Japanese  students  he  studied  and 
concludes:  "Every  Japanese  student  in  my  classes,  thus  far  tested, 
has  been  predominantly  object-minded,  both  in  the  experimental  analysis 
made  of  him  and  his  reactions  to  religious  and  philosophical  problems 
discussed  in  the  class." 

From  such  a  statement  as  this,  it  might  be  assumed  that  the  Japanese 
are  all  object-minded;  but  we  should  doubt  the  validity  of  this  proposi- 
tion, without  much  further  proof.  Again,  one  of  the  most  prominent 
thinkers  of  modern  Japan  has  said: 

"To  us  Orientals,  who  depend  more  upon  our  sight  than  upon  logic  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  Truth,  the  philosophy  that  I  was  taught  in  my  New  England  college  is  of 
comparatively  little  use  in  clearing  up  our  doubts  and  spiritual  phantasmagorias. 
I  believe  nobody  made  a  greater  mistake  than  those  Unitarian  and  other  intellectually- 
minded  missionaries,  who  thought  that  we  Orientals  are  intellectual  peoples,  and  hence 
we  must  be  intellectually  converted  to  Christianity.  We  are  poets  and  not  scientists, 
and  the  labyrinth  of  syllogism  is  not  the  path  by  which  we  arrive  at  the  truth. "10^ 

And  yet  Professor  Stratton  who  quoted  this  statement  adds:  "A  Japa- 
nese who  has  obtained  distinction  in  his  native  land  once  told  me  that 
in  his  young  days  he  found  a  kind  of  Bible  in  Mill's  Logic!" 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  some  writers  have  attempted  to  demonstrate 
the  unintellectual  nature  of  the  Japanese  people,  we  must  see  some 
indications  of  its  existence  in  the  cases  we  have  collected  in  the  present 
study.  Mr.  T.  Ando,  who  began  to  study  the  Bible,  relates  his  intel- 
lectual struggle  as  follows: 

"First  I  was  initiated  in  the  genealogy  of  Jesus,  which  caused  me  much  trouble 
because  of  numerous  proper  nouns,  followed  by  Joseph's  dream,  and  the  coming  of 
three  doctors  from  the  East.  (Such  a  story  seems  as  if  it  had  been  patterned  after  the 
ordinary  Oriental  myths.)  But  patience  compelled  me  to  proceed,  but  alas!  I  had 
to  give  it  up  by  all  means,  for  I  found  therein  the  same  old  miracle  stories.  Then  I 
said  to  myself:  'If  this  book  were  free  from  such  foolish  stories,  I  would  have  been 
able  to  read  it  through  at  least  once!'  But  I  thought  it  over  again  and  endeavored 
to  continue  reading  it,  and  asked  for  a  suggestion  or  two  from  one  of  the  American 
missionaries  who  let  me  take  a  small  anonymous  pamphlet  entitled,  Philosophy  of  the 
Plan  of  Salvation.  This  pamphlet  explained  the  importance  of  Christianity  for  the 
following  reasons:  (1)  Man  is  a  religious  being,  and  must  worship  something. 
(This,  however,  persuaded  me  to  the  contrary.)  (2)  Worship  implies  utter  subjec- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  worshipper  to  the  object  of  worship — arguing  thus  the  inferiority 
of  idolatry  and  advancing  the  hypothesis  of  the  superiority  of  Christian  God;  and 
(3)  Christianity  has  a  convincing  argument  against  atheism.  (The  argument  was 
very  minute  and  logical  to  me.)  I,  of  course,  had  believed  in  a  mysterious  power 
which  governs  and  transforms  the  universe,  but  I  conceived  of  it  as  something  different 
from  what  the  Christian  would  call  God.     When  one  attains  a  perfect  understanding 

106  Quoted  by  G.  M.  Stratton:  Psychology  of  the  Religious  Life,  1912,  p.  23. 


34  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

of  the  nature  of  God,  he  attains  a  real  enlightenment  of  his  soul  and  all  difficulties 
and  mysteries  of  the  world  would  be  solved,  as  if  a  huge  engine  begins  to  move  when 
the  steam  is  sent  through  its  pipes.  But  in  order  to  have  a  perfect  knowledge  of  God, 
one  must  believe  in  God  who  is  all-wise  and  almighty,  invisible,  omnipresent,  loving, 
pure  and  honest  and  possessing  all  other  divine  qualities;  and  also  believe  in  all  the 
revelations,  precepts,  prophecies  and  laws.  But  in  the  Bible,  the  one  thing  which 
greatly  hindered  my  faith  was  the  so-called  miracles, — the  decidedly  irrational  factor, 
and  this  made  me  abandon  the  notion  of  the  divine  revelations.  This  pamphlet 
contained  a  number  of  reasonable  and  plain  accounts  of  the  miracles,  and  I  was  con- 
vinced thereby  that  the  reason  why  we  cannot  understand  perfectly  the  miraculous 
element  in  the  Bible  was  because  I  did  not  clearly  recognize  the  divine  as  distinguished 
from  the  human.  Just  as  the  lower  animals  could  by  no  means  understand  perfectly 
the  behavior  of  human  beings,  so  we  as  human  beings  would  never  completely  appre- 
hend the  divine  purposes.  Such  was  the  general  trend  of  argument  as  presented 
in  that  booklet.  Undoubtedly  there  would  be  no  end  to  the  discussion  on  the  subject 
but  the  general  course  of  reasoning  seemed  to  be  fair.  After  an  extended  reference 
and  contemplation,  I  at  last  came  to  my  own  conviction  that  human  wisdom  is  insuf- 
ficient for  a  perfect  understanding  of  the  divine  wisdom;  and  with  this  conviction  I 
resumed  the  study  of  the  Bible.  The  miracles  which  had  formerly  been  the  obstacles 
in  my  procedure,  lost  their  seeming  irrationality  and  gradually  I  was  led  to  believe 
that  the  value  of  the  Bible  lies  to  some  extent  in  the  presence  of  the  miraculous.  But 
such  a  discovery  was  attained  only  after  a  long  period  of  intellectual  struggle."107 

In  the  above  case,  we  have  a  type  of  intellectual  conversion  which, 
for  the  lack  of  a  better  term,  may  be  called  intellectual  self-surrender. 
The  human  intellect  often  attempts  to  know  the  unknowable,  but  when 
the  limit  comes,  there  ensues  a  great  struggle  and  yet  the  unknowable 
remains  unknowable  for  the  average  intellect.  The  only  way  of  over- 
coming this  struggle  is  to  surrender  the  finite  to  the  infinite.  This  is 
the  situation  which  is  so  excellently  narrated  by  Mr.  Ando.  Rev.  H. 
Kozaki's  experience  adds  further  light  on  the  subject: 

"It  is  of  little  doubt  that  God  exists,  and  the  doctrine  of  immortality  is  a  com- 
paratively easy  matter  to  believe.  Especially  as  to  the  existence  of  God,  my  attention 
was  first  called  in  the  course  of  my  study  in  astronomy  and  geology,  and  thought 
of  the  universal  design,  and  I  came  to  believe  in  Him.  But  as  to  the  divinity  of 
Christ,  salvation  and  miracles,  I  could  not  solve  the  riddles.  I  contemplated  on  these 
themes,  conferred  with  others,  and  consulted  the  books  on  apologetics,  but  all  in 

vain Once  I  thought  of  abandoning  entirely  my  attempt  at  religious 

inquiry,  but  this  I  never  could  do.  And  yet,  I  could  not  believe  in  it.  Thus,  in  the 
state  of  semi-doubt,  I  spent  my  weary  days  more  than  a  year.  The  pains  of  worry  and 
doubt  during  this  period  seem  to  find  no  analogy  anywhere.  As  a  result  my  nervous 
system  gave  way,  and  I  became  an  inmate  of  a  hospital  for  over  a  month.  About 
this  time,  Messrs.  Ebina,  Yokoi  and  Kanamori  used  to  visit  me  frequently  and  we  all 
engaged  in  the  discussion  of  religious  matters.  Ordinarily  I  could  easily  put  up  an 
argument  not  inferior  to  theirs,  but,  during  this  period  of  doubt,  I  could  not  match 


107 


Story  of  my  Conversion  in  Hawaii,  pp.  8-20,  (abridged). 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  35 

them  in  debate.  And  often  when  I  called  on  Captain  Janes,  I  was  in  a  state  of  great 
anxiety  for  fear  he  might  ask  questions  regarding  my  faith,  to  which  I  felt  I  could  offer 
no  answer.     This  state  of  mind  is  well  expressed  by  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  of  James, 

'For  he  that  moveth  is  like  a  wave  of  the  sea  driven  with  the  wind  and  tossed 

a  double  minded  man  is  unstable  in  all  his  ways.'  (James  1:6-8)  But  one  evening 
I  called  on  Captain  Janes  in  order  to  receive  illumination  on  my  doubts.  He  quoted 
a  verse,  'For  what  man  knoweth  things  of  a  man,  save  the  spirit  of  man  which  is  in 
him?  Even  so  the  things  of  God  knoweth  no  man,  but  the  spirit  of  God.'  (I  Cor. 
2:11).  He  said  that  a  horse  or  a  dog  would  not  comprehend  things  of  the  human 
kind,  and  even  among  the  human  kind,  the  less  learned  would  not  fully  understand 
the  actions  of  the  more  learned;  and  so  the  human  can  never  completely  understand 
things  belonging  to  Almighty  God.  At  this  simple  advise,  a  new  light  dawned  in  my 
mind;  I  was  mistaken,  for  I  tried  to  measure  God's  mind  by  the  human.  There  is 
no  possibility  of  full  comprehension;  God's  mind  must  be  measured  by  the  God's 
spirit.  On  the  same  day,  Mr.  Ebina  called  on  me  and  advised  me  to  pray.  Hitherto 
I  had  been  of  the  opinion  that  we  may  thank  God,  but  should  never  pray  and  ask; 
but  from  about  this  time  I  came  to  realize  that  matters  religious  must  be  compre- 
hended by  receiving  the  spirit  of  God."108 

Mrs.  Hirooka,  one  of  the  active  Christian  women  of  today,  has  the 

following  experience: 

" As  for  Christianity,  I  rather  despised  it.     I  felt  strongly  the 

importance  of  education,  and  especially  of  woman's  education,  and  I  did  all  in  my 
power  to  help  in  the  establishment  of  the  Woman's  University;  and,  feeling  the  need 
of  more  learning  for  myself,  I  attended  lectures  and  read.  Though  only  in  a  slight 
way,  I  studied  ethics,  philosophy,  psychology,  and  sociology,  and  my  knowledge  of 
practical  difficulties  made  them  very  interesting  to  me.  I  felt  as  if  my  heart  were  a 
ploughed  but  yet  unsown  field,  into  which  seed  was  being  sown.  I  rejoiced  in  attain- 
ing to  knowledge,  and  yet  my  spiritual  life  was  not  satisfied I  was  per- 
plexed to  know  where  I  should  find  spiritual  life.  Should  I  seek  for  it  in  Buddhism, 
of  which  I  had  heard  a  good  deal,  or  in  Shintoism?  I  had  looked  upon  Shinto  as  an 
ethical  system;  and  as  for  Buddhism,  though  one  can  conquer  the  desires  of  this  world 
through  it,  yet  I  felt  that  it  did  not  help  me  in  my  longing  for  the  Infinite.  I  had  rather 
despised  Christianity,  but  I  now  thought  that  I  would  like  to  study  that  of  which  I 
knew,  so  I  applied  to  the  pastor,  Mr.  Miyagawa,  for  teaching.  At  the  beginning  I 
asked  him  to  teach  me  theology,  and  I  brought  forward  my  own  questions  and  wished 
them  answered.  At  first  I  was  very  argumentative,  and  then  I  became  silenced; 
each  time  I  was  taught  I,  more  and  more,  realized  the  ideal  personality  of  Christ,  and 
at  last  I  had  the  joy  of  feeling  that  through  the  living  personality  of  Christ  I  came  in 
touch  with  Truth.  The  self  that  had  relied  on  its  own  powers  became  abhorent,  and 
I  realized  with  humility  that  I  was  nothing  more  than  a  helpless  and  ignorant  child. 
Not  only  so,  but  the  personality  of  Christ  became  to  me  as  the  longed  for  light  of  the 
sun.  If  I  could  only  gaze  at  it,  surely  even  my  miserable  self  would  be  drawn  upwards. 
But  I  have  not  yet  attained  to  the  childlike  living  heart  that  can  say  Abba  Father,  and 
though  with  my  brain  I  can  understand  Christ's  prayer  on  the  cross  for  His  enemies, 
yet  in  my  heart  I  cannot  imitate  it.     Through  it,  however,  I  have  come  to  realize 

108  My  Experiences  of  Ttventy-five  Years,  (somewhat  abridged). 


36  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

the  transcendent  personality  of  Christ.  Among  the  four  world-teachers  (Christ, 
Buddha,  Confucius  and  Socrates)  I  can  best  understand  the  life  and  teaching  of 
Confucius;  from  my  own  experience  when  facing  death,  I  feel  that  I  could  attain  to 
the  attitude  of  Socrates,  who  was  in  no  way  dismayed  when  drinking  the  poison; 
Gautama,  reflecting  on  old  age,  sickness,  death  and  poverty,  trampled  under  his  feet 
the  desires  of  this  world:  this  I  might  do;  but  Christ's  heart  of  love  which  had  pity 
on  His  enemies  seems  to  me  to  be  the  heart  of  God,  and  I  sorrowfully  realize  that  I 
cannot  attain  to  it.  I  have,  however,  come  to  realize  the  joy  of  quiet  prayer,  and  with 
prayer  and  reading  of  the  Scriptures  I  approach  the  Living  Personality  and  earnestly 
desire  to  feel  the  Spirit  of  God  descend  upon  me."103 

Here  the  same  type  of  intellectual  sejf-surrender  is  seen  as  in  the  first 
case. 

Another  consideration  of  the  intellectual  element  in  conversion  leads 
us  to  the  psychology  of  meaning  as  applied  to  the  conversion  phenomena. 
We  give  first  the  cases  and  afterwards  attempt  an  interpretation.  Rev. 
U.  Sugita  remarks: 

"The  motive  for  my  belief  in  Christianity  is  based  on  the  fact  that  it  is  the  religion 
of  civilized  people  and  that  its  teachings  are  rational  and  its  morality  practical.  Later 
in  my  religious  development,  I  consulted  books  on  Apologetics  and  came  to  understand 
the  existence  of  God,  but  never  had  the  experience  of  coming  in  touch  with  the  per- 
sonality of  God.  In  the  spring  of  the  seventeenth  year  of  Meiji  (1884),  I  realized 
that  God  was  the  Father  of  all  mankind;  then  I  felt  as  if  I  was  being  embraced  in 
the  warm  hands  of  this  Father  and  found  the  real  rest  in  life.  I  had  lost  my  earthly 
father  long  ago,  but  I  found  in  God  a  greater  Father  who  was  the  source  of  a  real 
comfort  to  me.  This  experience  gave  a  new  meaning  to  the  Scriptures  and  a  sense  of 
pleasure  to  prayer,  and  taught  me  that  there  was  nothing  that  can  'separate  me 
from  the  love  of  God  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus.'  And  this  has  been  the  governing  faith 
of  my  life  ever  since."110 

Somewhat  similar  experience  is  given,  in  his  own  words,  by  J.  H.  Nee- 
sima  :lu 

'  'A  day  I  visited  my  friend,  and  I  found  a  small  Holy  Bible  in  his  library,  that  was 
written  by  some  American  Minister  in  China  language  and  had  shown  only  the  most 
remarkable  events  of  it.  I  lend  it  from  him  and  read  it  at  night.  I  was  afraid  that 
savage  country's  law,  which  if  I  read  the  Bible  will  cross  (i.  e.,  crucify)  my  whole 

family '    The  opening  sentence  of  this  book  was,  'In  the  beginning  God 

created  the  heavens  and  the  earth.'  He  says:  T  put  down  the  book  and  look  around 
me,  saying,  who  made  me?  My  parents?  No,  my  God.  God  made  my  parents  and 
let  them  make  me.  Who  made  my  table?  A  carpenter?  No,  my  God.  God  let 
trees  grow  upon  the  earth;  although  a  carpenter  made  up  this  table,  it  indeed  came 
from  trees;  then  I  must  be  thankful  to  God.  I  must  believe  him,  and  I  must  be  upright 
against  him.'  He  at  once  recognized  his  Maker's  claim  to  love  and  obedience,  and 
began  to  yield  them; " 

109  "How  I  Became  Interested  in  Christianity,"  East  and  West,  Vol.  X  (1912),  pp.  306,  307. 

110  Christian  World,  No.  1180,  p.  9. 

111  This  quotation  of  Mr.  Neesima's  actual  wording  is  taken  from  J.  D.  Davis:  A  Maker  of  New  Japan, 
1894,  pp.  20 f. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  37 

This,  however,  was  only  the  beginning  of  his  conviction;  the  later  develop- 
ment is  still  interesting: 

"While  they  lay  on  the  steamship  Wild  Rover  in  the  harbor  of  Hongkong, 
Mr.  Neesima  found  a  New  Testament  in  Chinese;  he  thought  that  he  must  have  it, 
but  how  should  he  get  it,  since  he  had  promised  to  ask  the  Captain  for  no  money? 
He  thought  of  his  sword,  and  he  finally  sold  it  and  bought  the  New  Testament.  .  . 
.  .  During  his  life  of  a  year  on  the  Wild  Rover,  he  began  to  read  his  New  Testament 
in  the  Chinese  language,  but  he  began  at  Matthew  and  read  on  in  course  through 
Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  voyage  he  came  to  the  16th  verse 
of  the  third  chapter  of  John:  'God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten 
son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life,' 
and  this  made  a  very  deep  impression  upon  him,  and  he  felt  that  this  was  just  such  a 
Savior  as  he  needed."112 

The  intellectual  type  does  not  as  a  rule  receive  impetus  from  social 

pressure.    It  works  out  on  its  own  accord.    Affection  and  other  religious 

sentiments  evolve  after  an  intelligent  study  of  the  religious  literature. 

The  case  of  H.  Yokoi  is  in  point: 

"Born  in  1809,  Yokoi  became,  in  the  forties,  a  keen  and  critical  student  of  religion 
and  ethics.  The  Confucian  philosophy  and  its  various  schools  of  exposition,  formed, 
of  necessity,  his  culture.  The  issue  was  an  ardent  exponent  of  Oyomeiism — so  much 
like  Stoicism  and  the  pragmatism  that  identifies  knowledge  and  action;  in  a  word, 
whatever  be  the  limitation  of  space  or  mind — the  dominant  idea  in  Greek  thought  and 
its  Christian  theology.  Invited  to  become  a  lecturer  at  Fukui  in  Echizen,  he  held, 
thrice  a  month,  in  the  castle  hall,  a  service,  attended  by  the  Daimio,  or  baron,  and  his 
chief  men,  which  in  outward  form  and  solemnity,  held  by  reverend  men  in  their  best 
garb  was  much  like  our  Sunday.  Hearing  of  'the  new  teachings'  beyond  the  sea, 
he  sent  to  Shanghai,  secured  a  copy  of  the  Gospel  in  Chinese — the  'Latin'  of  Japan, 
and  read  eagerly.  He  was  amazed;  in  all  literature  he  had  never  met  with  such  a 
character.  Both  brain  and  heart  were  stirred.  He  fell  in  love  with  Jesus,  the  Christ. 
Without  seeing  a  missionary  or  knowing  of  a  church  he  became  a  Christian."113 

Bishop  Hiraiwa  speaks  of  his  own  experience  as  follows: 

"My  faith  has  grown  gradually,  and  I  never  experienced  a  sudden  religious  awaken- 
ing. The  first  entry  was  from  the  side  of  ethics;  later  I  was  interested  in  the  study  of 
natural  sciences,  into  which  I  used  to  project  a  religious  significance;  finally  I  studied 
the  relation  of  the  evolutionary  theory  to  the  creation  myth  of  the  Bible.  At  last 
I  came  to  know  the  existence  of  the  Great  Law  in  the  universe."114 

Our  interpretation  of  the  religious  experience  in  its  intellectual 
aspect  is  found,  partly  at  least,  in  the  psychology  of  meaning  and 
understanding.  The  average  Japanese  has  a  certain  degree  of  religious 
consciousness  which  is  a  result  of  his  natural  training.     But  the  process 

112  Ibid.,  pp.  301. 

113 "  Christianity  of  Yokoi  Heishiro,  the  Modern  Proto-Christian  Martyr."  by  W.  E.  Griffis,  Horn. 
Rev.,  Vol.  LLX,  pp.  352  ff. 

114 Christian  World,  No.  1183  (May  3,  1906),  p.  4. 


38  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

of  cognitive  development  urges  him  on  to  find  still  more  complex  reality 
in  the  universe  of  meanings.  In  the  course  of  such  a  development,  he 
meets  with  the  religion  of  Jesus.  His  intellect  at  once  begins  to  experi- 
ence a  series  of  reactions  between  his  native  intellect  and  the  body  of 
truths  given  by  Christianity.  The  process  of  successful  relating  of  his 
native  intellect  and  the  newly  introduced  body  of  knowledge  means 
apprehension  of  the  situation.  This  process  of  reaction  or  the  relating 
experience  is  not  always  easy,  and  may  involve  a  period  of  doubt  or 
other  forms  of  struggle,  which  however,  is  only  a  step  in  the  course  of 
full  apprehension.  Professor  Dewey  has  made  clear  to  us  the  rhythmical 
character  of  the  process  of  understanding.  Our  intellect  progresses 
by  an  interaction  of  the  indirect  and  direct  understanding.  "We 
reflect  in  order  that  we  may  get  hold  of  the  full  and  adequate  significance 
of  what  happens.  Nevertheless,  something  must  be  already  understood, 
the  mind  must  be  in  possession  of  some  meaning  which  it  has  mastered, 
or  else  thinking  is  impossible."115 

The  average  Japanese  has  an  apperceptive  mass  of  his  own,  a  na- 
tively trained  intellect  and  a  world  of  meaning  which  corresponds  to  it. 
When  he  comes  in  contact  with  Christianity,  he  reflects  upon  it,  in  order 
to  interpret  it  in  terms  of  the  knowledge  he  already  possesses.  If  he 
succeeds  in  interpreting  the  body  of  knowledge  given  by  Christianity, 
he  increases  thereby  the  scope  of  his  world  of  meaning,  i.  e.,  he  truly 
understands  what  Christianity  is  and  becomes  converted.  The  mecha- 
nism of  acquiring  meaning,  then,  is  a  comparatively  simple  process. 
It  is  the  old  experience  going  into  the  new.  Religiously  applied,  it  is 
the  ethnic  religion  finding  a  fuller  and  richer  content  in  the  religion 
of  Christ.  That  such  a  process,  when  once  acquired,  is  more  permanent 
than  a  mere  alteration  of  emotional  life,  needs  perhaps  no  elaboration. 
It  may  involve  sometimes  a  severe  struggle,  but  the  end  is  bright.  This 
is  the  fundamental  theory  of  religious  education.  If  thought  is  a  dis- 
tinguishing mark  of  human  beings  as  compared  with  brutes,  then,  in 
the  religious  training  of  the  human  young,  this  phase  of  mental  life 
ought  to  receive  an  emphasis  greater  than  any  other  side  of  human  inter- 
est. There  is  surely  a  need  for  educating  the  thought  life  for  the  sake 
of  religious  development  as  much  as  for  the  sake  of  the  inherent  value 
of  thought  itself. 


Llf 


John  Dewey:  Bow  We  Think,  pp.  1 19 f. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  39 

4.      SOCIAL  PROCESSES  IN  CONVERSION 

We  have  seen  that  the  intellect  has  played  a  prominent  part  in 
converting  some  of  our  subjects  to  the  logic  of  Christianity.  We  are 
now  to  consider  another  important  factor  which  brings  about  the  same 
experience.  In  cases  where  the  intellect  predominates,  the  process  of 
conversion  is  more  or  less  a  self -directed  and  self-conscious  affair,  i.  e., 
the  individual  having  some  understanding  of  religious  experience, 
deliberates  upon  the  newly  introduced  religion,  interprets  it  in  terms 
of  his  own  experience  and  finally  accepts  it.  In  the  cases  which  we  are 
now  to  consider,  the  conversion  experience  involves  an  emotional  element, 
depending  upon  the  process  of  imitation  and  suggestion  in  a  social 
atmosphere.  The  presence  of  the  emotional  factor  in  conversion  has 
led  many  thinkers  to  adopt  the  emotional  theory  of  religious  experience, 
though  some  strongly  object  to  identifying  religion  with  any  such  arti- 
ficially sliced  piece  of  consciousness.116  At  any  rate,  we  have  here  the 
subjects  who  were  converted  under  social  pressure.  The  process  is 
almost  always  unconsciously  carried  out  and  at  times  against  the  will 
of  the  subject  experiencing,  but  such  an  unconscious  and  coercive  step 
proves  later  to  be  favorable  in  his  religious  development. 

A  singular  case  of  social  pressure  brought  to  bear  upon  the  convert 
is  that  of  K.  Uchimura  whose  narrative  is  very  illuminating: 

"I  was  then  a  freshman  in  a  new  government  college,  whereby  the  effort  of  a  New 

England  Christian  Scientist,117  the  whole  of  the  upper  class had  already 

been  converted  to  Christianity.  The  imperious  attitude  of  the  sophomores  toward  the 
'baby  freshmen'  is  the  same  the  world  over,  and  when  to  it  was  added  a  new  religious 
enthusiasm  and  spirit  of  propagandism,  their  impression  upon  the  poor  'freshies' 
can  easily  be  imagined.  They  tried  to  convert  the  freshies  by  storm;  but  there  was 
one  among  the  latter  who  thought  himself  capable  of  not  only  withstanding  the  com- 
bined assault  of  the  'sophomoric  rushes,'  (in  this  case,  religion-rush,  not  cane-rush), 
but  even  of  reconverting  them  to  their  old  faith.  But  alas!  mighty  men  around  me 
were  falling,  and  surrendering  to  the  enemy.  I  alone  was  left  a  'heathen,' the  much 
detested  idolator,  the  incorrigible  worshipper  of  wood  and  stones. 

"I  well  remember  the  extremity  and  loneliness  to  which  I  was  reduced  then. 
The  public  opinion  of  the  college  was  too  strong  against  me,  which  was  beyond  my 
power  to  withstand.  They  forced  me  to  sign  the  covenant  given  below,  somewhat  in  a 
manner  of  extreme  temperance  men  prevailing  upon  an  incorrigible  drunkard  to  sign 
a  temperance  pledge.  I  finally  yielded  and  signed  it.  I  often  ask  myself  whether  I 
ought  to  have  refrained  from  submitting  myself  to  such  a  coercion.     I  was  but  a 

1,6  Irving  King  would  say:  "Since  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  merely  emotional  reaction,  it  would 
appear  that  the  student  of  religious  phenomena  could  never  properly  define  religion  as  emotional  or  anything 
else  per  se."     The  Development  of  Religion,  p.  56. 

117  President  Clark  of  Sapporo  Agricultural  College  is  meant  here,  and  not  a  man  belonging  to  th" 
gect  of  Christian  Science. 


40  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

mere  lad  of  sixteen  then,  and  the  boys  who  thus  forced  me  'to  come  in'  were  all  much 
bigger  than  I.  So,  you  see,  my  first  step  toward  Christianity  was  a  forced  one,  against 
my  will,  and  I  must  confess,  somewhat  against  my  conscience,  too.  The  covenant 
I  signed  read  as  follows: 

Covenant  of  Believers  in  Jesus 

'The  undersigned  members  of  S.  A.  College,  desiring  to  confess  Christ  according 
to  His  command,  and  to  perform  with  true  fidelity  every  Christian  duty  in  order  to 
show  our  love  and  gratitude  to  that  blessed  Savior  who  has  made  atonement  for  our 
sins  by  His  death  on  the  cross;  and  earnestly  wishing  to  advance  His  kingdom  among 
men  for  the  promotion  of  His  glory  and  the  salvation  of  those  for  whom  He  died,  do 
solemnly  covenant  with  God  and  with  each  other  from  this  time  forth  to  be  His  faithful 
disciples,  and  to  live  in  strict  compliance  with  the  letter  and  the  spirit  of  His  teaching; 
and  whenever  a  suitable  opportunity  offers,  we  promise  to  present  ourselves  for  exami- 
nation, baptism,  and  admission  to  some  evangelical  church. 

'We  believe  the  Bible  to  be  the  only  direct  revelation  in  language  from  God  to 
man,  and  the  only  perfect  and  infallible  guide  to  a  glorious  future  life. 

'We  believe  in  one  everlasting  God  who  is  our  Merciful  Father,  our  just  and 
sovereign  Ruler,  and  who  is  to  be  our  final  Judge. 

'We  believe  that  all  who  sincerely  repent  and  by  faith  in  the  Son  of  God  obtain 
the  forgiveness  of  their  sins,  will  be  graciously  guided  to  this  life  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
and  protected  by  the  watchful  providence  of  the  Heavenly  Father,  and  so  at  length 
prepared  for  the  enjoyment  and  pursuits  of  the  redeemed  and  holy  ones;  but  that  all 
who  refuse  to  accept  the  invitation  of  the  Gospel  must  perish  in  their  sins,  and  be 
forever  banished  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord. 

'The  following  commandments  we  promise  to  remember  and  obey  through  all 
the  vicissitudes  of  our  earthly  lives: 

'Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with 
all  thy  strength,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself. 

'Thou  shalt  not  worship  any  graven  image  or  any  likeness  of  any  created  being 
or  thing. 

'Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name  of  the  Lord  thy  God  in  vain. 

'Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy,  avoiding  all  unnecessary  labor  and 
devoting  it  as  far  as  possible  to  the  study  of  the  Bible  and  the  preparation  of  thyself 
and  others  for  a  holy  life. 

'Thou  shalt  obey  and  honor  thy  parents  and  rulers. 

'Thou  shalt  not  commit  murder,  adultery,  or  other  impurities,  theft  or  deception. 

'Thou  shalt  do  no  evil  to  thy  neighbor. 

'Pray  without  ceasing. 

'For  mutual  assistance  and  encouragement  we  hereby  constitute  ourselves  an 
association  under  the  name  "Believers  in  Jesus,"  and  we  promise  faithfully  to  attend 
one  or  more  meetings  each  week  while  living  together,  for  the  reading  of  the  Bible  or 
other  religious  books  or  papers,  for  conference  and  for  social  prayer;  and  we  sincerely 
desire  the  manifest  presence  in  our  hearts  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  quicken  our  love, 
to  strengthen  our  faith,  and  to  guide  us  into  a  saving  knowledge  of  the  truth!' 

'S  —  March  5,  1877.' 

"The  whole  was  framed  in  English  by  the  American  Christian  Scientist  mentioned 
before,  himself  a  graduate  of,  and  once  a  professor  in,  one  of  the  most  evangelical 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  41 

of  the  New  England  colleges.  His  own  signature  was  followed  by  those  of  fifteen 
of  his  students,  and  my  classmates  swelled  the  number  to  over  thirty.  My  name, 
I  suppose,  stood  the  last  but  one  or  two."118 

On  reading  through  such  a  covenant,  we  do  not  wonder  that  the  act 
of  signing  the  name  must  have  been  one  of  blind  imitation  or  coercion. 
It  is  a  psychological  absurdity  that  a  believer  in  many  gods  could  sud- 
denly forsake  his  old  view  and  become  convinced  of  the  truth  of  many 
doctrines  such  as  incorporated  in  the  above  covenant.  But,  however 
blind  the  initial  step  may  have  been,  it  later  became  a  means  of  religious 
growth.  A  similarly  interesting  case  is  found  in  the  experience  of 
Rev.  H.  Kozaki: 

"At  that  time  there  came  to  pass  an  incident  which  greatly  moved  my  heart,  and 
that  was  the  persecution  which  my  schoolmates  had  to  suffer.  I  had  graduated  from 
the  English  School119  in  1875,  and  served  as  grammar  school  teacher  and  later  as 
instructor  in  the  state  academy.  I  was  not  a  student  in  that  school,  therefore,  when 
the  said  persecution  took  place.  From  the  autumn  of  1875  up  to  the  beginning  of 
1876,  a  remarkable  revival  was  witnessed  in  the  school.  Many  Christian  meetings 
were  held  for  the  students,  and  many  of  the  more  devoted  Christians  attempted 
to  spend  the  entire  night  in  prayer,  and  school  work  was  sadly  neglected.  As  a  result 
of  this  movement,  however,  the  school  turned  out  some  fifty  or  sixty  converts.  Toward 
the  end  of  January,  1876,  these  converts  resolved  to  take  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  a 
definitely  formulated  creed.  This  movement  was  conducted  entirely  by  the  students 
themselves,  and  even  Captain  Janes  was  not  aware  of  it.  The  creed  as  thus  formu- 
lated comprised  three  articles  of  faith:  (1)  The  believer  must  sacrifice  his  life  for  the 
sake  of  his  faith  and  country;  (2)  He  must  engage  himself  in  fraternal  intercourse 
with  cobelievers  and  realize  mutual  aid;  and  (3)  He  must  properly  conduct  himself 
as  a  believer,  keep  his  repute  unspotted,  and  suffer  suspension  in  case  of  disorderly 
conduct.  Those  who  signed  the  above  creed  numbered  about  forty-five.  I  was 
requested  to  attend  the  meeting  when  this  creed  was  to  be  signed;  but  owing  to  my 
doubtful  situation,  I  declined  the  invitation. 

"But  when  the  news  of  such  a  movement  spread  among  the  parents  of  these 
juvenile  converts,  a  great  commotion  ensued.  They  were  tremendously  astonished, 
and  immediately  summoned  their  converted  sons  to  their  side  and  forced  them  to 
abandon  their  newly  acquired  faith.  One  was  threatened  that  if  he  were  obstinate 
his  mother  would  commit  suicide;  another  received  a  sentence  of  confinement  in  a 
cell  for  several  months;  stiil  another  was  told  that  his  father  would  butcher  him  and 
was  actually  under  the  blade  of  a  sword,  but  the  converted  youth  was  quite  content 
to  be  executed  by  his  father,  and  on  the  expression  of  his  courage  and  conviction, 
the  angry  father  was  so  moved  that  he  failed  to  accomplish  his  act.  I  was  in  deep 
sympathy  with  my  persecuted  schoolmates,  and  rendered  them  no  small  assistance 
in  private.  My  situation  then  was  like  that  of  Joseph  of  Arimathea  or  of  Nicodemus 
and,  as  I  had  not  professed  my  faith  openly,  the  parents  of  these   schoolmates  allowed 

118  K.  Uchimura:  How  I  Became  aChristian,  1895,  pp.  11-14. 

119  This  school  was  in  Kumamoto  headed  by  Captain  Janes,  under  whose  instruction  many  present 
day  Christian  leaders  were  reared 


42  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

me  to  associate  with  their  sons.     But,  as  for  me,  this  was  an  opportunity  for  great 
encouragement  and  strengthened  me  in  deciding  to  accept  the  Christian  faith."120 

The  spirit  of  hero-worship  and  evaluation  of  characters  are  some- 
times the  leading  factors  in  bringing  about  the  conversion  experience. 
T.  Kobayashi  had  the  following  experience:121 

"In  the  year  1888,  when  he  was  an  employee  in  a  store  in  Kobe,  he  took  a  walk  with 
his  friend  one  evening.  As  they  were  passing  by  a  theatre,  he  noticed  a  bill-post  in 
front  advertising  a  meeting  that  evening  for  the  defense  of  Buddhism  against  Christi- 
anity. Curiosity  prompted  them  to  enter.  There  they  found  a  Buddhist  priest  of 
some  repute,  making  somewhat  superficial  and  illogical  statements  of  the  case  against 
Christianity  and  creating  a  sense  of  disgust  in  their  minds.  But  a  few  days  later,  it 
was  advertised  that  a  meeting  of  Christian  ministers  was  to  be  held  in  the  same  theatre. 
As  he  was  greatly  interested  in  the  combat  of  the  two  religions  he  attended  it,  expecting 
to  hear  a  similar  sort  of  apologetic  speeches.  To  his  surprise,  however,  he  found  the 
Christian  audience  to  be  exceedingly  quiet,  the  preachers  absolutely  sincere  and 
humble,  and  their  reasoning  logical.  Mr.  Kobayashi  was  greatly  impressed  with  the 
speeches.  This,  he  thought,  must  be  a  religion  far  superior  in  nature  to  Buddhism. 
In  the  course  of  a  speech  by  one  of  the  speakers,  Mr.  Kobayashi  noticed  a  young 
Buddhist  priest  in  one  corner  of  the  balcony,  continuously  trying  to  interrupt  the 
speaker — a  fact  which,  to  Mr.  Kobayashi,  seemed  to  be  very  ungentlemanly.  The 
continued  attempt  of  the  young  Buddhist  disturbed  the  peace  of  the  meeting.  At 
this  moment,  however,  a  heavy  tall  man  appeared  from  the  back  of  the  stage  and 
approached  the  young  priest  who  was  temporarily  the  center  of  public  attention. 
Then  there  arose  a  murmur  in  the  audience:  'He  is  a  teacher  of  Jiu-jitsu,  and  he 
can  force  the  priest  out  of  the  building.'  Mr.  Kobayashi  was  relieved  somewhat  at 
this  rumor,  and  was  looking  back  toward  the  Buddhist  priest  in  the  balcony.  But, 
contrary  to  his  and  others'  expectation,  that  big  Christian  man  was  seen  bowing  down 
repeatedly  before  the  ungentlemanly  priest.  He  was  entreating  the  Buddhist  friend 
to  be  quiet  at  least  during  the  speech.  At  the  sight  of  such  an  act,  Mr.  Kobayashi 
was  more  than  greatly  moved.  He  saw  the  true  greatness  of  the  Christian  religion, 
which  was  shown  in  the  behavior  of  that  man,  which  the  Buddhist  could  not  even 
imitate.  He  remembered  neither  the  preachers  nor  the  content  of  their  speeches, 
but  the  manly  behavior  of  that  Christian  left  an  unforgettable  impression  upon  his 
mind.  At  the  close  of  the  meeting,  he  notified  the  chairman  of  the  evening  of  his 
desire  to  study  further  the  truths  of  the  Christian  religion.  Then,  through  an  intro- 
duction by  a  Christian  friend,  he  began  to  pursue  the  study  under  Rev.  T.  Osada, 
then  the  pastor  of  the  Tamon  Congregational  Church,  and  at  the  same  time  he  so  ar- 
ranged for  some  of  his  friends  to  join  him  in  the  study  of  Christianity." 

Similar  experiences  are  the  following : 

"At  the  age  of  twenty  I  went  to  Tokyo  to  study  the  Oriental  classics  at  the  Philo- 
sophical Institute.  About  that  time,  as  I  remember,  I  began  to  hear  of  the  Christian 
religion  and  attended  a  preaching  service  in  the  home  of  a  missionary.  I  was  not 
impressed  by  the  sermon — the  preacher  was  expounding  the  prophecy  of  Daniel, 
which,  however,  gave  a  sense  of  the  supernatural — ,but  rather  I  was   attracted   by 

120  My  Experiences  of  Twenty-five  Years,  p.  6. 

121  N.  Kato:  The  Life  of  Tomijiro  Kobayashi,  pp.  44-47. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  43 

his  kind  attitude  to  all,  by  the  beautiful  tunes  of  the  hymns  and  by  the  warmth  of 
the  room  heated  by  a  stove,  which  I  had  never  experienced  in  the  ordinary  Japanese 
home.  (I  remember  it  was  in  the  winter.)  Later  I  entered  Aoyama  Gakuin  (Metho- 
dist Academy  in  Tokyo)  to  study  English.  Some  of  the  students  in  this  institution 
were  self-governing  and  knew  the  value  of  the  individual,  and  I  was  greatly  moved 
by  the  fact  that  they  were  cultivating  individual  morality  by  personal  efforts.  I  had 
hitherto  been  a  mere  passive  imitator  in  matters  of  personal  culture,  but  I  became 
ashamed  of  my  past  attitude.  Again,  the  gentlemanly  fashion  in  which  the  teachers 
treated  the  pupils  gave  me  a  sense  of  self-respect  and  endeavor."     (Subject  S.  M.) 

"At  last,  after  a  long  resistance,  I  attended  the  Bible  class  for  once.  There  was  one 
thing  which  touched  my  heart,  and  that  was  the  prayer  of  Captain  Janes.  Everyone 
bowed  down  his  head  during  the  prayer,  but  I  kept  my  eyes  open,  and  watched  intently 
the  captain's  face  as  he  prayed.  He  became  more  and  more  earnest,  as  he  went  on 
praying,  until  at  last  tears  of  sincerity  rolled  down  upon  his  cheeks, — a  fact  which 
struck  me  with  a  great  deal  of  emotion.  I  had  listened  to  a  number  of  scholars  in 
Chinese  classics,  but  it  was  the  first  time  that  I  came  in  direct  touch  with  a  man  of 
such  earnestness.  It  was  a  wonder  to  me,  and  I  thought  Christianity  must  have  a 
wonderful  power  and  at  last  I  became  a  student  of  the  Christian  religion."  (Rev.  H. 
Kozaki.) 

"Then  I  came  to  America, — it  was  about  nine  years  ago;  I  was  twenty  years  of 
age.  I  joined  the  Japanese  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  then  located  on  Haight  Street,  San  Francisco, 
not  particularly  because  it  was  a  Christian  institution,  but  because  I  happened  to 
stay  there.  I  had  not  been  there  long,  however,  before  I  began  to  feel  the  Christian 
influence  that  permeated  that  place,  more  exactly  as  expressed  in  the  personality 
of  Dr.  Sturge,  the  superintendent.  In  fact,  from  the  very  moment  I  met  him,  I  had 
already  been  impressed  by  his  lofty,  modest  and  infinitely  kind  character,  though  he 
did  not  speak  a  word  to  me.  I  made  up  my  mind  to  study  English  under  him.  I  did 
not  learn  the  language  much;  but  I  did  learn  to  respect  and  love  him,  and  through 
him  the  Christian  virtues.  He  preached  sermons  too,  and  I  always  listened  to  his 
words  reverently,  for  what  he  spoke  was,  to  me,  the  reflection  of  his  noble  character. 
I  began  to  be  interested  in  the  Christian  religion  for  the  first  time  in  my  life, — not 
in  the  religion  as  such,  however,  but  in  the  Christian  virtues  as  exemplified  in  the 
personality  of  Dr.  Sturge."     (Subject  K.  T.) 

"In  the  year  1886,  I  was  appointed  by  the  government  to  become  the  consul 
general  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands  where  I  was  ordered  to  stay  for  three  and  one-half 
years.  When  I  reached  there,  I  found  about  three  thousand  Japanese  laborers  whose 
conduct  was  astonishingly  corrupt.  I  did  my  best  to  reform  their  mode  of  life  by 
giving  them  precepts  and  admonitions,  but  all  in  vain;  their  conduct  grew  from  bad 

to  worse,  until  I  found  myself  in  great  bewilderment About  that  time, 

Mr.  K.  Miyama,  a  Christian  missionary,  came  from  San  Francisco  and  preached  the 
Gospel  among  these  laborers  with  the  purpose  of  changing  their  personal  behavior. 
To  my  great  surprise,  his  work  resulted  in  the  destruction  of  dice  and  wine  glasses, 
and  everyone  seemed  to  have  experienced  a  sudden  change  in  his  mode  of  living. 
When  I  witnessed  such  a  remarkable  fact,  I  was  compelled  to  acknowledge  the  work 
of  the  Christian  religion  in  man's  moral  life  and  to  pay  respect  to  that  once-hated 
religion.  This  was  really  the  beginning  of  my  contact  with  Christianity."  (Taro 
Ando.) 


44  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

"At  fourteen  years  of  age,  I  came  to  Kobe  to  study  Chinese  classics,  Arithmetic 
and  English,  and  the  teacher  was  a  Christian.  He  asked  me  to  go  to  the  church,  but  I 
would  not.  One  evening  there  was  a  great  Christian  meeting  in  one  of  the  large 
theatres  of  the  city.  My  teacher  again  asked  me  to  attend  and  this  time  I  did.  I 
had  been  brought  up  in  a  home  where  Christianity  was  a  taboo;  consequently  I 
despised  all  Christians  and  had  no  use  for  religious  practices,  especially  such  as 
prayer.  But  from  this  time  on  I  began  to  become  unprejudiced  towards  Christianity 
and  I  used  to  hear  many  Bible  stories.  Soon  I  went  to  Nagano  to  live  with  a  rela- 
tive who  was  a  judge.  His  wife  was  an  earnest  Christian  and  she  asked  me  if  I  were 
a  Christian.  I  became  very  much  attached  to  this  woman  and  Christianity  as  she 
showed  me  seemed  to  be  very  different  from  what  I  had  previouly  conceived  of.  I 
began  to  attend  the  Sunday  School  of  the  church  of  which  she  was  a  member.  But 
still  such  matters  as  prayer,  God-experience  and  miracles  were  a  profound  mystery 
to  me.  We  used  to  discuss  these  subjects  frequently.  I  also  read  the  Bible.  In 
the  meantime,  it  happened  that  her  daughter  died.  She  would  say  that  her  faith 
was  lacking  and  go  out  and  kneel  down  beside  the  grave  and  pray.  I  used  to  accom- 
pany her  and  pray  too,  for  the  first  time.  A  little  later  I  was  a  victim  of  typhoid 
fever  and  this  prompted  my  decision  to  become  a  Christian.  And  in  December  of 
my  fifteenth  year  I  was  baptized  in  spite  of  my  mother's  opposition."     (Subject  M. 

s.) 

"When  I  was  about  ten  years  old,  I  attended  the  Sunday  School,  conducted  by 
the  Azabu  middle  school,  though  I  did  not  continue  very  long.  It  was  at  the  age  of 
twenty  that  I  began  to  go  to  church.  I  was  then  in  a  state  of  exceeding  loneliness, 
after  having  lost  both  my  parents  and  grandparents,  and  was  seeking  some  sort  of 
comfort  in  life.  I  had  the  ambition  of  making  something  of  myself  and  this  hope  was 
the  only  source  of  solace  to  my  lonely  soul.  But  I  had  no  inclination  of  receiving 
any  comfort  by  becoming  a  religious  devotee.  My  ambition  was  of  an  entirely  worldy 
nature.  When  I  was  in  such  a  state  of  mental  distress,  there  was  an  English  teacher 
in  our  middle  school  who  invited  me  one  evening  to  a  dinner.  He  treated  me  just 
as  if  I  were  a  member  of  his  family,  and  this  warm  and  sympathetic  reception  accorded 
to  me  by  a  foreign  teacher  made  a  deep  impression  upon  me,  for  I  was  hungry  for  a 
wholesome  home  environment,  and  in  such  a  warm  Christian  home,  I  was  made  to 
experience  in  some  degree  the  love  of  Christ.  Although  he  was  not  a  missionary,  he  was 
a  true  Christian,  and  his  home  was  filled  with  Christian  love  and  sympathy.  Thus 
I  did  not  listen  to  many  sermons,  nor  consult  many  books;  I  only  saw  the  light  in  the 
true  Christian  love  which  permeated  the  home  of  this  Christian  teacher.  I  continued 
to  attend  the  church  and  about  one  year  later  I  was  baptized."  (Subject  Y.  O.) 

"When  I  was  sixteen  years  of  age,  I  came  spiritually  in  touch  with  Christianity. 
I  was  alone  in  a  large  city,  away  from  my  parents.  Loneliness  was  the  only  word  which 
could  adequately  describe  the  state  of  my  mind  in  those  days,  and  even  a  small  act 
of  love  and  kindness  had  a  great  influence  over  me.  I  was  in  a  position  to  understand 
Christian  love.  I  experienced  a  great  emotional  upheaval,  and  the  universe,  the 
society  and  all  other  objects  under  the  sun  seemed  to  have  undergone  a  complete 
change.  I  was  filled  with  joy  and  became  humble  and  the  altruistic  sentiment  grew 
stronger."     (Subject  T.  M.) 

"When  I  began  to  go  to  church,  the  Christians  would  say  things  that  I  desired  to 
say,  and  act  in  ways  that  I  desired  to  act.     This  harmony  of  my  mental  inclination 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  45 

with  that  of  the  Christians  induced  me  to  become  one  of  their  numbers."     (Subject 
H.  M.) 

"When  I  went  to  church,  I  was  impressed  with  the  friendship  of  the  Christians 
and  with  the  spirit  of  love  and  sympathy  which  created  its  atmosphere.  The  more 
important  religious  side  of  the  sermon  was  somewhat  unintelligent  to  me,  but  its  moral 
side  was  clear  and  a  thrill  of  joy  passed  through  my  mind.  I  had  no  one  who  would 
stop  me  from  attending  the  services,  and  when  I  continued  for  about  two  months,  a 
Methodist  preacher  visited  our  church  for  a  special  evangelistic  campaign.  He 
preached  earnestly  and  effectively  on  'The  Love  of  God.'  My  mind  had  been  pre- 
pared, as  it  were,  for  this  very  occasion;  I  experienced  a  great  emotional  crisis,  and  at 
last  I  knelt  down  before  Jesus  Christ."     (Subject  J.  K.) 

The  above  cases  prove  the  presence  of  the  spirit  of  hero-worship 
and  evaluation  of  character  in  the  conversion  experience.  There  is 
another  fashion,  however,  in  which  the  leaders  of  young  men  influence 
the  process  of  conversion.  This  is  rather  involuntary  on  the  part  of 
the  subjects  experiencing  conversion,  and  therefore  there  is  usually  no 
emotional  excitement  or  sudden  awakening.     The  subject  M.  K.  says: 

"It  was  when  I  was  twenty -one  years  of  age  that  I  came  to  realize  what  Christianity 
was  and  to  devote  my  life  to  its  cause.  Prior  to  that  time  I  was  egoistic.  The  reason 
for  this  turning  was  the  consciousness  of  the  earnest  spirit  of  my  father  in  his  evan- 
gelistic work  which  I  had  been  noticing,  and  also  of  the  moral  decline  of  society. 
I  realized  for  the  first  time  in  my  life  that  the  devotion  to  the  cause  of  Christianity 
was  the  most  precious  way  of  living." 

The  gradual  influence  of  the  Sunday  School  in  the  case  of  our  subject 
Y.  O.  is  as  follows: 

"Thus  I  have  little  to  say  concerning  the  real  experience  of  conversion.  I  was 
baptized  at  sixteen  years  of  age;  I  did  not  jump  suddenly,  but  gradually  slid  in,  so  to 
speak." 

A  somewhat  unusual  case  of  social  influence,  together  with  the 
birth  of  the  sense  of  sin  is  found  in  our  next  subject,  Y.  B.: 

"When  I  was  very  young,  I  used  to  hear  of  the  persecution  which  the  early  Chris- 
tian believers  in  Japan  had  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  government.  I  used  to  know 
some  native  converts  of  Greek  Catholicism  and  their  conduct  was  of  the  best  moral 
quality;  consequently  my  impression  of  Christianity  was  very  favorable.  When  I 
graduated  from  the  grammar  school,  one  of  my  friends  came  to  spend  his  vacation 
in  my  home,  who  tried  to  persuade  me  to  attend  the  same  mission  school  that  he  was 
attending.  I  consented.  At  first  I  held  in  contempt  all  those  students  in  mission 
schools,  who  called  themselves  Christians,  for  they  were  not  brilliant  in  their  studies 
and  appeared  to  me  to  be  a  sort  of  time-servers.  One  of  my  classmates  (who  was  ahead 
of  me  in  school  studies)  was  baptized  and  became  a  changed  man,  and  I  began  to  wonder 
for  the  first  time  if  Christianity  had  really  a  power  to  transform  a  man's  life.  I  then 
began  to  reflect  upon  my  own  character  and  conduct.  I  came  in  touch  with  some 
refined  missionaries,  but  they  all  failed  to  reach  the  very  depths  of  my  heart.  (This 
may  be  the  reason  why  the  majority  of  missionaries  are  doing  so  poorly  in  Japan.) 
I  struggled  to  live  up  to  the  moral  ideal  I  then  cherished,  but  failed  repeatedly.     The 


46  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

pain  of  this  failure  to  realize  my  ideal  made  me  feel  the  terror  of  sin.  I  came  to  know 
I  gradually  that  the  God  whom  Christ  teaches  is  my  Savior.  I  made  up  my  mind 
'  definitely  to  enter  into  the  new  life  in  Him.  I  often  prayed  in  the  dead  of  the  night, 

alone  with  tears.     I  could  believe  that  God  would  forgive  my  sins." 

The  foregoing  study  of  the  social  aspects  of  the  conversion  experience 
enables  us  to  detect  in  it  an  emotional  element,  quite  similar  to  that  of  the 
revival  phenomena.  Though  they  lack  that  suddenness  and  abruptness 
which  characterize  the  experience  of  the  evangelistic  converts,  yet  the 
process  reveals  to  us  the  operation  of  suggestion  and  imitation  and  their 
distinctively  social  nature.  At  times,  it  is  almost  a  necessity  for  social 
coercion  to  play  upon  the  individual's  mind,  in  order  to  bring  about 
the  experience  of  conversion.  Social  coercion  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Uchim- 
ura,  as  we  have  seen,  proved  to  be  a  happy  initiatory  step  in  the  Christian 
career.  This  is  undoubtedly  a  case  of  social  crisis  which  influences 
externally  the  individual  under  the  influence  of  the  mass  and  by  the 
strength  of  the  social  atmosphere.  The  externally  induced  condition 
may  often  appear  to  be  artificial,  but  it  is  genuine  with  some  individuals. 

Again  there  are  cases  where  the  social  influence  plays  upon  the  reli- 
gious development  of  the  individual  not  in  such  an  abrupt  and  artificial 
fashion,  but  in  a  less  striking  and  more  natural  way.  This  is  frequently 
connected  with  the  youthful  spirit  of  hero-worship  and  of  the  admiration 
of  the  leaders  whose  lives  arouse  the  feelings  of  respect  and  honor. 
The  religion  of  such  leaders  appeals  to  the  youthful  minds  as  true  and 
worthy.  This  following  after  the  pattern  is  essentially  a  social  process, 
and  conversion  here  is  a  phase  of  imitation  in  a  more  complicated  aspect. 

The  evaluation  of  character  and  social  pressure,  then,  are  the  two 
main  aspects  that  present  themselves  to  us  in  the  study  of  our  cases, 
and  thus  force  us  to  conceive  the  process  of  conversion  as  essentially  a 
social  one. 

5.      CONVERSION  AS  A  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CRISIS 

Religion  has  often  been  regarded  as  an  essential  factor  in  the  struggle 
for  existence.122  By  some  religion  has  been  viewed  as  a  creation  which 
satisfies  the  needs  of  man  as  he  lives  and  exists  in  the  world.123  That 
such  views  are  sometimes  justifiable  requires  no  elaboration.  We  have 
among  our  subjects  those  whose  religiosity  took  a  definite  forward 
step  when  they  encountered  a  serious  crisis  in  their  lives.  Here  is  a 
subject  whose  testimony  reveals  the  fact  that  he  has  been  brought  up 

122  J.  H.  Leuba:  "  Religion  as  a  Factor  in  the  Struggle  for  Life,"  Am.  Journ.  of  Rel.  Psychol,  and  Educ. 
Vol.  II,  p.  307;  G.  B.  Foster:  The  Function  of  Religion  in  Man's  Struggle  for  Existence,  Chicago,  1908. 

123  E.  S.  Ames:  The  Psychology  of  Religious  Experience,  pp.  33  ff. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  47 

in  a  non-  or  even  anti-religious  atmosphere,  but  became  at  once  religious 

and  devoted  when  he  experienced  a  severe  blow  upon  his  personal  and 

family  welfare: 

"When  I  was  eighteen  years  of  age,  my  mother's  illness  had  suddenly  changed 
and  become  extremely  serious.  The  physician  said:  'All  is  over;  Heaven  determined 
now  her  destiny!'  When  I  heard  these  words,  I  felt  a  shiver  passing  through  my  limbs 
like  an  electric  shock,  and  I  said  to  myself:  'If  my  mother's  life  is  now  in  the  hands 
of  Heaven,  why  should  I  not  pray  to  Heaven  with  my  true  devotion?'  But  I  knew 
nothing  about  this  mysterious  Heaven;  nothing  explained  to  me  the  nature  of  Heaven. 
The  time  sped  on;  I  could  not  tarry  any  longer.  I  was  led  by  something  unconsciously 
and  ran  out  to  the  well  just  outside  of  the  house.  I  divested  myself  of  all  garments 
and  poured  three  bucketfuls  of  cold  water  over  my  body  and  prayed,  as  if  uncon- 
sciously, for  the  possible  recovery  of  my  mother.  I  could  not,  however,  pray  to 
Heaven,  for  I  knew  not  what  it  was,  and,  therefore,  I  directed  my  prayer  toward 
some  deity  of  whom  I  had  heard  once  before.  This  was  the  first  time  I  ever  attempted 
to  pray.  My  prayer  was  not  heard,  but  I  could  never  forget  this  first  prayer  and  the 
question  which  arose  in  my  mind  at  that  moment  as  to  the  meaning  of  Heaven.  From 
this  time  on,  I  began  to  regard  with  respect  even  the  practices  of  idol-worshippers 
and  to  seek  something  religiously  myself.  After  about  a  year,  I  received  an  invitation 
from  a  friend  to  attend  a  Christian  preaching  service  one  evening.  I  accepted  it  and 
walked  miles  to  attend  the  meeting.  Little  did  I  imagine  that  this  was  the  meeting 
which  gave  me  an  opportunity  to  know  of  Heaven,  of  God,  and  even  of  the  Lord  of 
Creation.  I  returned  home  with  a  profound  impression,  and  I  spent  most  of  that 
night  in  quiet  meditation.  The  next  day  I  called  on  the  preacher  and  finally  I  found 
what  I  had  been  seeking.  This  was  the  time  when  I  saw  God,  the  Heavenly  Father. 
My  heart  was  filled  with  joy  and  gratitude,  and  I  count  this  day  as  my  spiritual  birth- 
day."124 

Subject  K.  Y.  has  this  remarkable  experience: 

"In  my  last  year,  a  little  before  graduation  in  the  high  school,  a  great  change 
took  place  in  my  house.  The  veneer  factory  which  my  father  owned  caught  fire  and  was 
totally  destroyed.  Owing  to  this  unexpected  disaster,  I  was  informed  that  my  father 
could  no  longer  pay  my  school  expenses  to  send  me  to  the  college  which  I  expected  to 
enter  after  finishing  the  high  school.  When  I  received  this  sad  news  from  home  I  was 
exceedingly  discouraged.  I  sought  words  of  encouragement  from  my  classmates,  but 
could  find  and  think  of  no  true  friend  who  would  sympathize  with  me  fully.  I  came 
back  to  my  own  room  and  walked  to  and  fro.  As  I  failed  to  get  any  solace  from  my 
comrades,  I  thought  of  Buddha  and  of  the  parable  of  the  dry  well.125  I  cried  out  to 
Buddha  for  sympathy." 

"It  was  when  I  was  fifteen  years  of  age  that  I  came  into  contact  with  Christianity. 
I  became  a  clerk  in  a  stock  exchange  firm  and  was  appointed  assistant  to  the  treasurer, 
and  took  charge  of  the  bookkeeping  and  acted  as  the  cashier  on  many  occasions. 
But  owing  to  my  youthful  age,  I  was  destined  to  experience  a  severe  blow  in  my 
business  career.  It  happened  that  there  was  a  crook  among  my  business  associates, 
and  he  persuaded  me  to  let  him  spend  several  thousand  dollars  and  forced  me  to 

mYasutaro  Naide:  Christian  World,  No.  1180  (April  12,  1906). 
125  For  the  allusion  of  the  dry  well,  see  supra,  p.  25. 


48  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

destroy  all  the  books  that  might  become  evidence  of  his  mischief,  since  he  was  unable 
to  return  the  amount.  This  fact,  however,  was  finally  discovered,  and  as  the  result 
of  a  conference,  the  stockholders  themselves  were  made  responsible  for  the  loss.  There 
was  one  person  whose  influence  settled  this  event  harmlessly,  and  that  was  the  chair- 
man of  the  trustees  who  believed  in  me  and  who  was  anxious  for  my  future.  I  still 
remember  him  and  admire  him  as  a  man  of  lofty  character.  But  this  bitter  experience 
served  to  my  mind  as  the  beginning  of  a  religious  and  moral  life.  About  that  time 
I  fell  into  a  hard  spiritual  struggle  in  quest  of  peace  and  happiness.  For  two  weeks 
I  could  neither  eat  nor  sleep,  and  it  made  me  cry  almost  in  the  spirit  of  the  man  who 
cried:  'What  shall  I  do  to  be  saved?'  From  this  time  on,  I  decided  to  live  on  religious 
principles,  and  I  found  a  Presbyterian  divine  who  lived  in  our  neighborhood  and 
began  to  attend  the  church.  I  determined  to  become  an  efficient  merchant  and  after 
graduating  from  a  business  school,  I  came  to  Tokyo  and  thence  to  Yokohama  where 
I  was  preparing  to  enter  the  Higher  Commercial  College.  It  was  during  my  stay 
there  that  I  was  baptized  into  a  Presbyterian  Church."     (Subject  S.  S.) 

Sometimes  a  physical  disaster  awakens  a  sense  of  sin  and  a  desire 

to  atone  for  personal  misconduct.     Subject  K.  W.  says: 

"At  the  age  of  eighteen  I  was  tempted  by  an  evil  acquaintance  who  led  me  into  the 
atmosphere  of  the  brothel  and  prostitution.  Unfortunately  I  became  a  victim  of  a 
dreadful  venereal  disease,  and  for  half  a  year  I  suffered  tremendously.  During  this 
period  I  felt,  more  vividly  than  I  had  ever  dreamed,  the  evil  of  immorality,  and  that 
the  philosophy  I  then  entertained  was  not  sufficient  to  solve  the  problem  with  which 
I  was  struggling.  I  had  heard  once  that  Christianity  had  excellent  precepts  particu- 
larly in  respect  to  sexual  relations  and  I  began  to  take  interest  in  the  study  of  that 
religion  in  order  to  redeem  my  evil  life  and  to  attain  to  higher  ideals.  This  was  the 
first  and  the  greatest  step  toward  my  conversion  experience." 

The  sense  of  distress,  the  feeling  of  unwholeness,  the  consciousness  of 

sin,  etc.,  were  found  by  Starbuck  to  be  predominant  as  motives  and 

emotional  concomitants  of  conversion.     Our  subjects,  however,  show 

only  in  a  limited  degree  the  presence  of  such  experiences.   The  phenomena 

of  vision,  together  with  the  sense  of  sin  and  unwholeness,  are  exhibited 

in  the  following  cases: 

"The  first  step  in  the  development  of  my  religious  experience  was  due  to  my 
meditation  on  the  state  of  my  own  self — namely,  I  was  a  small  insignificant  creature. 
At  this  thought  I  became  greatly  vexed,  for  I  knew  not  where  I  stood  with  reference 
to  the  Great  Laws  of  the  Universe.  At  times,  I  fasted;  at  times  secluded  myself 
in  the  mountains,  and  a  feeling  of  oppression  attacked  my  mind  with  unspeakable 
vividness.  I  felt  as  if  I  was  caught  by  something.  When  asleep,  I  dreamed  fearful 
dreams.  In  one  of  these  dreams,  I  was  surrounded  by  several  armed  men,  and  as  I 
was  greatly  alarmed  and  excited,  I  killed  a  few  of  them  and  then  I  ran  and  awoke. 
Such  dreams  assailed  me  night  after  night.  I  frequently  wiped  the  sweat  off  my 
body  when  I  awoke  in  the  morning.  Again,  I  dreamed  of  a  sudden  fall  from  a  high 
cliff.  Each  time  I  had  a  dream,  a  new  feeling  filled  my  mind.  After  the  repetition  of 
several  of  these  fearful  dreams,  and  after  my  sense  of  fear  reached  its  summit,  I  con- 
sciously apprehended  the  meaning  of  the  cross  of  Jesus,  and  came  to  know  God  through 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  49 

Jesus  Christ.  The  experience  above  narrated  lasted  for  several  years,  from  about 
1874  to  1880."126 

"But  in  many  ways,  I  was  in  the  midst  of  evil  habits  which  were  in  opposition  to  these 
religious  practices.  I  was  in  the  grip  of  many  sins.  The  consciousness  of  these 
sins  began  when  I  was  about  six  or  seven  years  old  and  lasted  until  my  twenty-first 
year, — particularly  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  twenty.  But  it  was  during 
this  period  of  my  consciousness  of  sins  that  I  was  most  religious,  and  I  was  greatly 
attached  to  philosophical  writings  which  to  my  mind  were  the  best  things  one  could 
get."     (Subject  S.  M.) 

Kaku  Imai127  became  interested  in  Christianity  in  Kobe  where  he 
was  recuperating  after  having  served  for  three  years  as  the 
resident  priest  of  a  run-down  temple  in  Hokkaido.  He  was  broken 
down  both  in  heart  and  in  health.  As  he  was  strolling  around  the 
Ikuta  Shrine  one  evening,  his  attention  was  called  to  a  band  of  young 
men  who  were  advertising  a  big  evangelistic  meeting  in  the  city.  He 
was  somewhat  in  a  receptive  attitude;  so  he  went  to  this  meeting.  Since 
then  he  came  repeatedly  in  touch  with  Christians,  and  each  time  he  was 
impressed  with  genuine  personality  of  a  Christian.  He  began  to  wonder 
if  Christianity  had  really  a  power  to  transform  human  personality. 
And  as  he  was  longing  for  peace  in  his  heart,  he  at  last  turned  his  inquisi- 
tive mind  to  the  claims  of  Christianity.  He  began  to  attend  church 
services  and  other  evangelistic  meetings,  in  the  course  of  which  he  heard 
effective  messages  from  Rev.  Miyagawa  of  Osaka,  and  from  Rev.  De 
Forest  of  Sendai.  Deeply  moved  by  their  appeal,  he  sought  to  study 
the  Bible.  He  had  to  overcome  repeated  temptations  to  regard  it 
unintelligent  and  primitive,  being  full  of  genealogies  and  miracles. 
But  when  he  came  to  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  his  attention  was  called  to 
a  verse,  "Blessed  are  the  mourners,  for  they  shall  be  comforted."  This 
caught  his  fancy  for  two  reasons:  first,  he  was  in  adversity  and  seeking 
comfort  and  solace,  and  secondly,  he  could  not  interpret  the  verse 
satisfactorily  for  himself.  Then  he  went  to  Rev.  Yoshikawa  for  the 
elucidation  of  the  text,  and  one  of  the  pastor's  explanations  was  to  read 
it,  "Blessed  are  those  who  mourn  over  their  shortcomings  and  weak- 
nesses, for  thereby  they  strive  to  be  more  perfect."  This  exactly  is 
what  he  wanted.  Gradually  there  dawned  in  his  mind  a  conviction  that 
his  return  to  the  original  post  as  a  priest  in  Hokkaido  would  only  be  a 
repetition  of  the  old  way  of  hypocritical  service,  and  he  heard  the  voice 
of  Christ  rebuking  the  hypocrite.     He  then  committed  all  to  God  of 

126  Bishop  Hiraiwa,  in  the  Christian  World,  Loc.  oil.,  p.  4. 

127  Rev.  Imai's  pamphlet,  "Why  I  Left  Buddhism  and  Became  a  Christian,"  is  so  full  that  we  thought 
it  best  to  summarize  the  main  events  which  led  him  to  accept  Christ,  rather  than  to  give  scattered  extracts. 


50  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

Christ,  and  after  prayer  and  meditation  based  on  the  study  of  the 
Scriptures,  he  decided  to  abandon  Buddhism  and  become  a  Christian. 
Following  his  decision  he  experienced  for  the  first  time  unspeakable 
peace  of  mind  and  finally  obeyed  the  call  of  God  to  devote  his  life  to  the 
Christian   ministry. 

It  seems  to  be  true  that  a  serious  crisis  in  personal  welfare  is  a  very 
natural  cause  of  religious  awakening.  We  might  relate  this  with  what 
Starbuck  calls  "the  sense  of  distress,"  when  the  nervous  system  is  in  the 
state  of  instability.  The  victim  of  such  circumstances  often  shows  an 
eagerness  to  get  a  hold  of  something  permanent  and  stable.  The  actual 
situation  of  distress  in  which  the  subject  is  placed  vivifies  the  mental 
imagery  of  a  contrary  nature,  and  when  the  object  which  satisfies  such  a 
need  is  presented,  it  is  jealously  and  greedily  grasped.  It  is  this  mental 
disturbance  which  causes  visions  and  dreams,  and  heightens  the  sense 
of  personal  imperfection.  The  process  of  acquiring  the  permanent,  or 
to  speak  in  terms  of  neurology,  the  period  of  recovering  from  the  state 
of  unstability  to  normal  condition,  sometimes  lasts  several  years,  as  in 
the  case  of  Bishop  Hiraiwa  above  cited.  When  the  reality  is  seized  and 
the  permanent  found,  then  the  mental  disturbance  comes  to  an  end. 
This  same  fact  is  emphasized  by  Cutten  as  follows: 

"The  struggle  has  continued  until  the  ego  seems  to  be  almost  rent  asunder  in 
some  cases;  one  or  the  other  of  the  contesting  factors  must  give  way,  and  finally  the  old 
self,  the  lower  desire,  gives  up  the  battle  and  sometimes  instantaneously,  sometimes 
gradually,  the  misery,  worry  and  despair  are  changed  to  happiness,  trust  and  confi- 
dence; the  unsettled,  divided  self,  seems  stable  and  united."128 

Again  Coe  speaks  of  the  phenomena : 

"Competition  is  going  on  for  the  mastery  of  life.  You  may  call  it,  in  theological 
terms,  a  struggle  between  Satan  and  the  Spirit  of  God;  or  you  may  call  it,  in  biological 
language,  an  effort  to  adjust  ourselves  to  environment  against  unsocialized  remnants 
of  the  ape  and  the  tiger  nature."129 

The  bitter  experience  of  Uchimura  in  his  conversion  from  polytheism 
to  Christian  monotheism  cited  in  sections  2  and  4,  is  a  striking  instance 
of  the  divided  self  as  being  in  the  process  of  gradual  unification.  This 
case  clearly  points  out  the  process  of  growth  from  a  heterogeneous 
aggregate  of  lower  habits  into  a  unity  of  higher  habits.130  The  old 
habits  were  not  necessarily  contradictory  and  foreign  to  the  new;  they 
were  the  very  material  out  of  which  the  new  were  evolved.     Physiologi- 

128  G.  B.  Cutten:  The  Psychological  Phenomena  of  Christianity,  p.  243. 

129  The  Religion  of  a  Mature  Mind,  p.  114. 

130 Cf.  Bryan  and  Harter:  "Studies  in  the  Physiology  and  Psychology  of  Telegraphic  Language," 
Psychol.  Rev.,  Vols.  IV  and  VI. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  51 

cally  speaking,  the  old  habits  occupied  certain  positions  in  the  nervous 
system,  and  the  new  ones  came  not  to  destroy  all  these  nervous  sets 
already  in  existence,  but  only  to  fulfill,  to  unify  and  relate  these  diverse 
nerve  paths  by  forming  a  new  association.  There  has  come  a  new  mean- 
ing into  the  group  of  old  habits,  and  each  of  these  old  ones  found  its  own 
appropriate  function  in  the  light  of  the  larger  system.  The  phraseology 
of  the  convert  himself  in  experiencing  this  state  of  gaining  mental 
equilibrium  is  suggestive  of  this  point:  "Oh,  how  proudly  I  passed  by 
temple  after  temple,  with  my  head  erect  and  conscience  clear,  with  full 
confidence  that  they  could  punish  me  no  longer  for  my  not  saying  my 
prayers  to  them,  for  I  found  the  God  of  gods  to  back  and  uphold."  The 
new  system  of  habit  mastered  the  old. 

There  is  another  point  which  seems  to  be  of  vast  importance  in  con- 
nection with  the  consideration  of  religious  conversion  as  a  psychological 
crisis.  We  have  been  told  recently  that  the  religious  attitude  is  geneti- 
cally a  "construct,"  determined  in  large  measure  by  various  objective 
conditions  of  the  life-process.  "From  such  a  point  of  view  we  shall  be 
led  to  say  that  there  is  no  such  thing,  for  instance,  as  a  detached  sense  of 
duty,  or  of  sin,  which  is  applied  here  and  there  as  opportunity  may  offer 
or  render  appropriate,  but  rather  that  these  feelings  represent  certain 
crises  in  action,  and  that  the  character  of  the  preceding  action  has, 
been  of  direct  importance  in  the  determination  of  the  character 
of  the  resulting  conscious  state."131  We  are  in  possession  of  some  data 
which  go  to  show  that  some  such  explanation  of  the  rise  of  the  religious 
attitude  as  given  by  King  is  the  only  legitimate  one.  The  religious 
instinct,  if  there  is  any,  is  a  mere  assumption  in  the  immature  life,  or  at 
least  it  is  a  static  statement  which  from  a  functional  point  of  view  is 
an  absurdity.  We  have  had  occasions  to  examine  the  actual  experiences 
of  the  Japanese  converts,  and  they  seem  to  indicate  unanimously  that 
their  definitely  religious  attitude  had  arisen  when  they  encountered 
crises  in  life,  which  from  the  standpoint  of  functional  psychology,  repre- 
sent an  act  in  life  and  must  be  interpreted  by  the  subsequent  states  of 
consciousness. 

The  religious  attitude,  then,  seems  to  be  a  psychic  state  which 
immediately  accompanies  any  grave  incident  in  life.  It  arises  as  an 
attitude  of  conscious  evaluation  or  interpretation  of  the  life-process 
which  primarily  consists  of  overt  acts  and  practices,  at  first  with  no 
definite  significance  or  value.  We  are,  therefore,  to  conclude  that  the 
religious  consciousness  is  only  one  of  many  conscious  states  that  are 

131  Irving  King:  The  Development  of  Religion,  1910,  p.  42  (italics  mine). 


52  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

built  up  on  the  basis  of  motor  adjustments,  and  in  this  respect  it  does  not 
differ  from  other  attitudes.  We  shall  have  an  opportunity  to  see  later, 
however,  that  the  religious  attitude  does  differ  from  other  conscious 
states,  not  on  the  basis  of  its  origin  and  nature  of  development,  but  on 
the  basis  of  its  pragmatic  content,  i.  e.,  on  the  ground  of  the  function 
that  it  serves  in  life. 

6.      REBIRTH  AS  THE  POST-CONVERSION    EXPERIENCE 

In  the  foregoing  section  reference  has  been  made  to  the  nature  of 
unification  that  results  from  a  victory  in  the  mental  struggle  at  a  crucial 
period  of  religious  awakening.  We  are  now  to  consider  the  final  outcome 
of  conversion  which  may  be  called  the  state  of  rebirth.  It  has  been 
customary  to  differentiate  conversion  from  regeneration,  especially  in 
theology.  Strictly  speaking,  these  two  terms  simply  indicate  two  sides 
of  one  and  the  same  experience,  and  therefore  their  distinction  is  justifia- 
ble only  to  a  limited  degree.  In  fact  in  many  cases,  it  is  quite  impossible 
to  distinguish  these  two  aspects  of  the  experience.  From  a  psychological 
point  of  view,  however,  we  must  prefer  the  term  conversion  to  regenera- 
tion, for  it  designates  more  approximately  the  human  side  of  the  seem- 
ingly divine  experience.  Conversion,  however,  even  from  our  point  of 
view,  is  characterized  by  a  phenomenon  known  as  "rebirth."  We  are 
more  or  less  familiar  with  remarkable  cases  of  conversion,  in  which  the 
lives  are  completely  changed,  the  low  desire  and  affection  are  raised  to  a 
higher  level,  the  appetite  for  harmful  objects  is  annihilated,  the  sinner 
is  made  a  saint, — in  fact,  the  process  of  sanctification  permeates  the 
whole  personality  of  a  convert.  This  is  known  as  the  regenerate  life 
or  the  state  of  rebirth.  A  more  dramatic  catastrophe  which  is  de- 
scriptive of  such  a  state  is  reached  by  the  subject  K.  Y. : 

"I  approached  the  screen  door  and  opened  it;  it  was  an  evening  in  spring.  The 
sun  was  sinking  slowly  and  beautifully  colored  clouds  were  floating  softly  along  the 
western  horizon.  Silence  seized  me  while  I  stood  alone  before  the  wonderful  universe 
of  Jehovah.  'The  Great  Maker  of  the  Universe,'  cried  I  unconsciously,  'Why  hast 
thou  destroyed  my  father's  factory?  He  is  a  man  of  honesty  and  integrity.  Why  is 
it  that  I  was  made  to  lose  forever  the  opportunity  to  secure  a  higher  education?  Why 
must  I  live  in  this  dark,  hopeless  well?'  Then  I  wept  to  my  heart's  content.  As 
I  wiped  the  tears  from  my  eyes,  the  sun  had  already  sunk.  A  faint  streak  of  crimson 
tinged  the  western  sky. 

"The  air  was  still.  I  was  alone  with  the  universe.  I  began  to  think  of  the 
Christ  of  whom  I  had  learned  much  from  the  missionaries  and  the  New  Testament. 
I  meditated  upon  his  humble  birth,  upon  his  common  and  yet  unspotted  life,  upon 
his  fearless  and  marvellous  ministry,  and  upon  his  unselfish  sufferings.  I  lifted  up 
my  eyes  and  looked  up  to  this  new  Savior.     He  was  not  born  in  the  palace  of  India, 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  53 

but  in  the  manger  of  Bethlehem.  He  did  not  don  the  garb  of  silk,  but  wore  the  work- 
ingman's  garment.  In  place  of  the  golden  crown,  he  was  crowned  with  thorns.  Not 
a  bamboo  stick  did  he  stretch  to  save  a  man,  but  his  own  arm.  'Come  unto  me,' 
sounded  His  tender  voice  within  my  heart,  'Ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden, 
and  I  will  give  you  rest.'     In  Him  at  last  I  found  true  and  perfect  rest." 

In  the  realm  of  conduct  and  habits  of  life,  conversion  often  changes 

the  course  of  the  pre-conversion  stage. 

I  came  to  discontinue  my  cigarette  and  drink  habits  and  a  great  change  took 
place  in  my  general  behavior.  The  objective  evidence  is  the  surprise  on  the  part  of 
my  non-Christian  friends  at  such  a  remarkable  and  complete  change."132 

"The  greatest  struggle  I  encountered  after  my  conversion  was  a  moral  one. 
Although  I  had  fought  with  all  my  might,  victory  was  not  an  easy  one.  But  I  was 
conscious  of  the  fact  that  morally  my  conduct  was  greatly  improved,  and  many  a 
friend  marvelled  at  the  change.  I  refused  to  accept  alcoholic  drink  that  even  my  good 
father  used  to  offer  me.  But  I  finally  made  him  believe  that  I  was  right  and  my  friends 
recognized  my  uprightness  as  a  young  student.  I  also  came  to  believe  that  God's 
hand  has  guarded  me  through  all  my  troubles  and  pleasures  of  the  world,  and  I  firmly 
believe  that  He  will  lead  me  in  the  future.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  our  nation  can 
hardly  afford  to  miss  the  influence  of  Christianity  for  her  salvation,  I  decided  to  give 
my  life  to  the  task  of  the  ministry."     (Subject  Y.  B.) 

"After  my  conversion,  I  relied  solely  upon  Christianity  as  my  guide.  My  irregu- 
lar conduct  became  regular."     (Subject  H.  T.) 

"With  reference  to  the  change  of  life,  I  experienced  an  unspeakable  quietude  and 
contentment  in  my  mind,  and  my  world-view  was  considerably  enlarged.  This  may 
seem  trivial,  but  it  was  not  so  with  my  own  self."     (Subject  T.  U.) 

Of  all  the  changes  that  result  from  conversion,  however,  the  most 

characteristic  is  that  of  the  birth  of  the  larger  self,  as  we  noted  in  the 

previous  sections,  which  has  a  soothing  and  quieting  influence  upon 

the  convert's  mental  life. 

"After  becoming  a  Christian,  there  has  come,  I  believe,  no  change  in  my  life  as 
far  as  conduct  is  concerned,  but  only  in  my  ethical  conceptions.  Before  I  became  a 
Christian,  my  faith  was  in  the  self.  For  every  action,  the  man  alone  is  responsible. 
It  is  I  that  do  or  undo.  I  alone  can  guide  myself  in  my  life's  journey.  I  alone  can  be 
trusted  in  all  my  personal  conduct.  But  I  came  to  see  that  there  are  many  things 
which  I  could  not  do.  Man  is  weak;  by  faith,  however,  he  becomes  strong.  I  am  not 
what  I  will,  but  I  am  what  God  willeth  me  to  be.  I  pray  for  his  power  constantly 
so  that  I  may  become  strong  and  fulfill  the  divine  will.  Formerly  I  believed  in  the 
power  within  and  that  was  my  power;  now  I  believe  in  the  power  from  above  which 
acts  on  the  external  world  through  me.  I  do  not  believe  God  dwells  at  a  certain 
definite  place.  Indeed  I  do  not  know  where  He  is  and  I  do  not  care  to  know  in  so 
far  as  I  can  feel  the  divine  power  everywhere,  even  in  my  own  heart.  It  is  the  divine 
nature  of  man  that  enables  me  to  receive  this  power  which  is  divine."  (Subject 
K.  T.) 

132  Shunkichi  Murakami,  in  the  Christian  World,  No.  1 183  (May  3,  1906),  p.  4. 


54  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

"In  a  word,  my  confidence,  (that  is,  self-confidence  in  a  more  enlightened  sense, 
more  in  the  order  of  courage),  has  considerably  grown.133  This,  I  believe,  is  due  to 
the  birth  of  faith  in  Almighty  Providence,  that  I  am  now  with  God.  As  to  the  change 
other  than  this  increase  of  faith,  I  feel  as  if  I  am  greatly  relieved  of  something.  I 
feel  easy  and  comfortable.  My  conception  of  the  world  is  broadened.  Although 
this  seems  a  small  matter,  it  is  of  great  significance  to  my  life.  My  native  disposition 
is  subject  to  a  comparatively  small  change,  but  the  breadth  of  view  which  is  born 
in  me  is  to  me  a  great  change  indeed."     (Subject  T.  U.) 

Some  converts  experience  a  change  in  the  vocational  interest  of  life, 
largely  in  an  altruistic  direction.  The  ministry  is  frequently  chosen 
as  a  result  of  conversion. 

"About  one  year  after  my  conversion  I  began  to  feel  that  God  wanted  me  to  become 
a  Christian  minister,  and  now  I  am  studying  in  a  theological  school  in  spite  of  the 
opposition  on  the  part  of  my  parents  and  of  the  sacrifice  on  my  own  part.  When  I 
was  in  the  high  school,  I  received  the  news  of  my  father's  death,  and  was  asked  to 
return  home  in  order  to  inherit  his  properties,  but  owing  to  my  conviction  that  I 
should  remain  in  America  to  complete  my  education  for  the  ministry,  I  declined  the 
offer  and  appointed  my  younger  brother  to  the  heritage.  Since  that  time,  I  have 
studied  for  seven  years,  but  God  has  always  provided  for  my  needs.  After  I  became 
a  Christian,  my  sympathy  for  my  fellow  men  has  grown  deeper,  and  I  have  learned 
to  associate  with  them  in  a  kindly  and  loving  spirit.  I  trust  all  in  Christ,  and  now 
my  life  is  free  from  all  cares  and  I  am  happy  at  the  thought  that  I  can  look  forward 
within  a  year  from  now  for  the  time  to  engage  myself  actively  in  a  spiritual  warfare." 
(Subject  T.  H.) 

"After  I  graduated  from  the  higher  school,  I  was  given  a  position  as  a  teacher. 
At  that  time  I  met  a  missionary  who  endeavored  to  persuade  me  to  become  a  Christian 
minister.  I  was  then  placed  in  a  dilemma  of  the  worldly  ambitions  on  the  one  hand, 
and  of  the  realization  of  the  suffering,  hungering  and  thirsting  millions,  and  the  min- 
istry to  them  on  the  other.  I  was  in  a  state  of  great  perplexity  and  could  not  decide 
easily.  But  I  prayed  and  finally  I  gave  myself  to  the  cause  of  service.  Realizing 
the  inadequacy  of  my  training,  I  entered  a  theological  school  and  began  to  have  charge 
of  a  church.  I  had  a  severe  struggle  in  that  work  but  I  was  always  happy  in  spirit. 
I  felt  the  need  of  studying  the  principles  and  methods  of  Sunday  School  work."  (Sub- 
ject. Y.  O.) 

"After  my  conversion,  I  was  vexed  as  to  the  choice  of  my  vocation.  I  had  once 
cherished  an  ambition  to  become  a  soldier,  but  abandoned  it  and  decided  to  be  a 
Christian  minister.  Overcoming  all  the  oppositions,  I  entered  the  Meiji  Gakuin 
(Presbyterian  Mission  School  in  Tokyo)."     (Subject  Sh.  M.) 

"After  my  conversion  I  was  actively  engaged,  on  the  one  hand,  in  the  work  of  a 
church  by  joining  the  Young  People's  Society,  and  on  the  other,  worked  hard  to 
accomplish  my  long-cherished  desire.  The  result  was  a  nervous  breakdown,  and  I 
was  compelled  to  live  quietly  on  the  seashore.     My  association  with  beautiful  nature 

183 Cf.  the  statement  of  Renouvier:  "Faith  is  but  the  self."  Psychologie  rationellc,  iii,  p.  80.  "But 
it  is  self  in  the  widest  and  deepest  sense,  the  self  that  includes  the  nation  and  reaches  down  to  the  base 
and  bottom  of  the  moral  law.  Through  a  supreme  act  of  will  and  of  self-assertion,  man  rises  to  a  hope 
that  can  create  from  its  own  wreck  the  thing  it  contemplates."  H.  S.  Nash:  "The  Nature  and  Defini- 
tion of  Religion,"  Uaroard  Theol.  Rev.,  Vol.  VI,  p.  23. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  55 

during  this  period  of  retirement,  and  the  mystery  of  silence  profoundly  affected  not 
only  my  health  but  also  caused  a  great  revolution  in  my  spiritual  life.  I  became 
devoted  to  altruistic  causes.  An  American  lady  missionary  who  guided  the  steps 
of  my  life  at  this  time  was  a  powerful  agent  in  turning  my  worldly  ambition  into  the 
noble  purpose  of  giving  my  life  to  the  work  of  the  ministry."     (Subject  S.  S.) 

The  post-conversion  experience  is  by  no  means  characterized  by- 
uniform  peace  of  mind  and  happy  contentment.  Often  the  battle  has 
to  be  fought  more  than  once,  after  the  conventional  form  of  conversion 
occurs.  This  phase  of  the  experience  has  caused  many  writers  to  note 
the  repetition  of  conversion.     We  are  in  possession  of  a  few  cases  here: 

"After  I  became  a  Christian  I  was  conscious  of  the  difference  between  myself 
and  other  non-Christian  people,  and  this  consciousness  led  me  to  be  extremely  careful 
in  regard  to  my  daily  conduct.  I  attended  regularly  all  the  meetings  of  the  church, 
and  made  exhortations  and  prayed  in  public.  At  my  first  attempt  to  pray,  I  did  not 
know  how  to  conclude  a  prayer  but  was  very  earnest.  Next  I  was  made  a  Sunday 
School  teacher  and  later  clerk  and  treasurer  of  the  church.  This  was  in  the  childhood 
days  of  my  spiritual  life  when  the  joy  of  salvation  filled  my  heart.  Such  a  period,  how- 
ever, was  comparatively  short.  With  the  progress  of  the  time,  I  came  to  experience  a 
severe  battle  between  good  and  evil  within  my  mind  that  I  had  never  experienced 
before.  I  prayed  and  struggled,  but  the  joys  of  the  former  days  never  returned  to  me. 
Then  I  began  to  feel  that  the  church  was  an  uncomfortable  place  where  flattering  words 
and  formal  meetings  were  cherished.  I  began  to  know  that  missionaries  and  pastors 
were  not  all  of  noble  character,  and  even  the  so-called  Christians  were  not  any  differ- 
ent from  non-Christian  brethren.  The  church  itself  seems  to  be  egoistic  in  endeavoring 
to  work  only  for  the  benefit  of  its  own  denomination.  These  were  the  factors  which 
caused  my  disgust  for  the  church,  and  I  became  once  more  a  child  of  darkness.  And 
yet  I  was  conscious  of  the  fact  that  the  church  was  much  better  than  ordinary  insti- 
tutions and  I  did  not  totally  desert  the  church  but  continued  to  perform  my  duties. 
In  this  wise,  now  on  the  surface  and  now  on  the  bottom,  I  was  floating  and  sinking 
meaninglessly  almost  along  the  shores  of  faith.  In  the  meantime,  I  was  a  victim 
of  typhoid  fever  and  for  some  time  unconscious.  Everyone  thought  I  would  live  no 
longer  and  everyone  kept  aloof  from  me  for  fear  of  infection.  But  one  day  one  of  my 
fellow  Christians  came  to  visit  me  from  a  distant  place.  A  hearty  gratitude  filled 
my  heart.  After  the  illness  of  about  four  months  I  fortunately  recovered  and  was 
able  to  attend  the  Christmas  celebration.  While  I  was  on  the  sick-bed,  I  realized 
that  the  destiny  of  man  was  in  the  hands  of  God  and  we  humans  could  not  adequately 
control  it.  Thus  I  concluded  to  myself  that  if  my  life  is  in  His  hands,  I  must  commit 
everything  to  Him;  and  if  my  life  is  spared  now,  it  must  be  because  my  life  is  of  some 
service  to  Him.  I  decided  to  give  the  remainder  of  my  life  to  the  work  of  God  in  a 
truly  Christian  spirit.  I  had  once  before  been  advised  by  my  pastor,  but  I  was  unable 
to  decide  definitely  until  this  very  moment.  This  one  thing  was  sufficient  to  shed  a 
flood  of  light  upon  my  darkened  heart."     (Subject  J.  K.) 

Even  a  minister  of  the  Gospel  must  repeat  conversions.     Rev.  T.  Koki 

says: 

"In  the  evening  of  March  21,  1884,  when  I  was  ministering  to  the  Temma  Congre- 
gational Church  (Osaka),  we  held  a  revival  service  at  our  church.     About  that  time,  my 


56  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

heart  was  aglow  with  worldly  ambitions,  and  I  was  beginning  to  think  it  a  height  of 
folly  to  remain  in  the  ministry.  I  thought  of  changing  my  profession  into  that  of  law, 
and  one  of  my  friends  was  of  the  same  opinion  with  regard  to  my  choice  of  future 
work.  But  on  that  evening,  one  of  the  believers  stood  up  and  testified  of  his  Christian 
experience,  and  all  those  present  at  the  service  were  moved  by  a  wave  of  great  emotion. 
One  young  man,  Kususe  by  name,  attempted  to  fly  out  of  the  building  because  of 
the  emotional  upheaval  he  experienced  and  dashed  into  a  screen  door.  I  myself 
was  filled  with  a  tremendous  sense  of  sin,  and  my  heart  was  almost  paralyzed  and  I 
fell  down  on  the  floor.  One  of  the  believers  approached  and  urged  me  to  murmur 
'Jesus.'  I  was  totally  unable  to  say  that  word  at  that  moment.  I  tried  hard,  how- 
ever, and  at  last  succeeded  in  uttering  the  word,  and  as  soon  as  that  was  done,  I  felt  a 
good  deal  better.  It  was  in  this  instance  that  all  my  worldly  ambitions  were  driven 
away  and  I  pledged  anew  my  devotion  to  the  work  of  the  ministry.  I  myself  was 
astonished  at  the  momentous  change  that  had  occurred  in  my  mind."134 

Subject  T.  M.  has  the  following  post-conversion  experience: 

"My  post-conversion  life  may  be  divided  into  three  periods:  (1)  From  16  to  20 
years  of  age.  This  period  may  be  called  that  of  religious  enthusiasm.  Christianity 
was  conceived  to  be  the  highest  religion  of  the  world,  and  this  conviction  urged  me  to 
join  every  Christian  movement  and  strive  to  tell  of  this  religion  to  everyone  I  met. 
At  times  I  thought  that  those  who  did  not  profess  their  faith  in  Christianity  were 
sure  to  perish.  (2)  From  20  to  22  years  of  age.  A  reaction  had  set  in,  and  a  hostile 
attitude  toward  all  forms  of  church  work  dawned  in  my  mind.  I  did  not  attend  the 
church  even  once.  The  influence  that  played  upon  me  at  this  time  was  somewhat 
obscure,  but  I  lost  practically  all  my  Christian  faith.  (3)  From  22  to  24  years. 
This  was  a  critical  period.  The  spirit  of  criticism  was  prevailing  in  the  study  of  the 
Bible,  in  my  conception  of  the  Christian  character,  and  even  in  my  own  personal 
attitude.  The  change  hereafter  is  difficult  to  be  predicted,  but  I  hope  to  grow  stronger 
in  faith." 

The  rise  of  the  altruistic  sentiment  after  the  conversion  experience 
is  noted  in  the  following  case: 

"The  notable  changes  that  resulted  from  my  conversion  are  as  follows:  My 
irritable  nature  became  exceedingly  restful,  my  sentiment  became  optimistic  and  my 
conscience  grew  to  be  very  keen.  The  greatest  change,  however,  was  the  rise  of  my 
altruistic  sense.  I  became  desirous  of  helping,  uplifting  and  comforting  my  fellow- 
men.  While  I  was  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  I  assisted  in  organizing  two  Japanese  churches, 
assumed  the  duty  of  a  secretary,  and  sometimes  acted  as  a  pulpit  supply  in  one  of  the 
churches.  I  thought  that  our  work  should  be  first  of  all  for  Christ,  secondly  for  the 
neighbors,  and  lastly  for  ourselves.  I  am  especially  interested  in  the  work  of  social 
service  and  availed  myself  of  every  opportunity  to  study  the  reformatories,  asylums, 
hospitals,  etc."     (Subject  K.  W.) 

The  foregoing  cases  all  point  to  a  certain  well  defined  result  of  con- 
version, and  the  various  phases  of  the  post-conversion  experience  may  be 
called  the  state  of  rebirth.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  the 
religious  development,  whether  sudden  or  gradual,  can  never  be  a  com- 

134 Christian  World,  No.  1180  (April  12,  1906),  p.  8. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  CONVERSION  57 

plete  process  in  itself.  It  has  individual  variations  and  is  always  char- 
acterized by  a  capacity  for  further  growth.  It  must  be  viewed  primarily 
as  a  process  of  development  and  various  degrees  of  maturity  are  to  be 
seen  among  the  converts.  Starbuck  and  James  have  already  given  us 
in  full  the  nature  of  the  new  life  as  well  as  the  lines  of  growth  following 
the  conversion  phenomenon,  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  repeat  here  the 
elaboration  of  these  subjects.  We  have  collected  and  attempted  to 
classify  the  materials  we  have  in  hand  in  this  chapter.  The  classification, 
however,  can  never  be  complete  and  absolute,  for  the  religious  experience 
is  a  psychic  complex  which  defies  any  attempt  of  classification.  We  have 
only  endeavored  to  group  together  the  cases  as  they  point  to  the  particu- 
lar phase  of  the  religious  consciousness  which  we  studied.  The  following 
two  chapters  are  some  of  the  interpretations,  as  well  as  the  applications 
of  the  principles  here  deduced  from  our  data. 


CHAPTER  IV 

Theoretical  Deductions 
1.    the  psychology  of  the  christian  apologetics 

In  studying  the  data  which  we  collected  in  the  previous  chapter, 
there  present  themselves  certain  principles  which  exact  our  attention 
and  force  us  to  a  fuller  discussion  from  the  standpoint  of  theoretical 
and  practical  psychology.  In  the  present  chapter  we  shall  consider  only 
three  of  these  more  important  theoretical  deductions,  and  these  are: 
The  psychology  of  the  Christian  apologetics,  the  supernatural  element 
in  conversion  and  the  psychological  criterion  of  morality  and  religion. 

Christian  apologetics  is  generally  divided  into  five  departments  for 
the  sake  of  convenience  in  the  treatment  of  the  subject,  one  of  which  is 
styled  " psychological,"  and  its  task  is  defined  somewhat  inaccurately 
as  "the  establishment  of  the  religious  nature  of  man  and  the  validity 
of  his  religious  sense."135  Under  the  psychological  arguments,  such  topics 
as  the  conversion  of  Paul,  the  witness  of  Christian  customs  and  institu- 
tions, the  success  of  Christianity,  the  abiding  unity  of  faith,  the  psycho- 
logical nature  of  religion,  etc.,  are  usually  discussed.136  On  a  careful 
examination,  however,  of  the  summaries  given  either  by  Warfield  or 
by  Crafer,  we  are  greatly  disappointed  with  their  exceedingly  loose  estima- 
tion of  the  true  significance  of  the  psychological  or  experiential  grounds 
for  belief  in  the  Christian  religion.  The  shortcomings  of  the  so-called 
"argument  from  Christian  experience,"  at  least  as  set  forth  by  the 
writers  who  rely  upon  this  method,  have  been  pointed  out  by  Coe.137 
It  is  not,  therefore,  our  aim  now  to  review  in  any  extensive  degree  these 
shortcomings  of  the  apologists.  There  are  some  writers,  however,  who 
are  trained  in  psychology  and  their  use  of  the  experiential  argument 
assumes  some  accuracy,  and  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  quote  here  the  style 
of  argument  employed  by  one  of  these  more  skilful  authors  on  Christian 
evidences. 

Ebrard138  apprehends  more  clearly,  perhaps,  than  any  other  apologetic 
writer  the  true  import  of  the  psychological  point  of  view,  and  his  pre- 
sentation and  interpretation  of  the  phenomenon  of  religious  struggle 

136  B.  B.  Warfield:  article  "Apologetics"  in  the  New  Schajf-Ilerzog  Rel.  Encyc,  Vol.  I,  p.  236. 

136  See  the  article  "Apologetics"  by  T.  W.  Crafer,  in  the  Encyc.  of  Rel.  and  Ethics,    Vol.  I,  pp.  618  fl. 

137  G.  A.  Coe:  "What  does  Modern  Psychology  permit  us  to  believe  in  respect  to  Regeneration?" 
Am.  Journ.  of  Theology,  Vol.  XII,  pp.  362  ff. 

138  J.  H.  A.  Ebrard:  Apologetics;  or  the  Scientific  Vindication  of  Christianity,  (Eng.  trans.),  Edin- 
burgh, 1886      3  vols. 


THEORETICAL  DEDUCTIONS  59 

and  cognition,  quite  analogous  to  our  pre-conversion  experience,  is  of 
immense  significance  from  our  standpoint.  The  argument  based  on  the 
analysis  of  the  religious  experience  runs  as  follows: 

" Both  the  premises,  which  lead  to  the  cognition  of  God  (namely, 

the  knowledge  of  the  external  world  and  the  knowledge  of  self),  are  in  every  human 
consciousness,  even  in  that  of  the  simplest  peasant  or  child,  immediately  given,  and 

operate  directly  as  an  urgent  feeling  which  passes  on  to  the  knowledge  of  God 

Every  man  finds  himself  as  a  natural  being  bound  to  the  body  and  identifying  himself 
with  it,  assigned  in  his  bodily  life  to  conditions  of  life,  set  into  the  order  of  collective 
nature,  begotten  in  an  animal  manner,  born,  breathing,  eating,  drinking,  sleeping; 
he  finds  himself  in  the  world  as  a  part  of  the  same.  And,  nevertheless,  every  man  at 
the  same  time  knows  himself  as  an  ego,  which  in  perception  and  thought  receives  into 
itself  this  world  and  its  relations,  makes  it,  or  a  part  of  the  same,  the  contents  of  its 
knowledge,  the  object  of  its  volition  and  endeavor,  is  herein  distinguished  as  a  rational 
being  from  animals,  and  with  perfect  justice  regards  it  as  a  disgrace  and  an  insult 
when  the  name  of  an  irrational  animal,  as  a  name  of  his  essence,  is  attributed  to  him, 
the  man.     The  natural  man  is  immediately  conscious  that  he  is  a  being  raised  above 

nature Between  both  those  sides  of  consciousness  an  involuntary  tension 

takes  place.     As  long  as  man  has  nothing  further  than  both  these  facts  of  immediate 

consciousness,  he  is  a  mystery  to  himself,  he  feels  himself  rent  asunder, 

there  is  an  inner  contradiction  in  him;  his  state  of  being  bound  to  an  animal  body 
contrasts  with  his  egohood,  his  intellectual  constitution;  and  if,  in  order  to  attain  to 
unity  with  himself,  he  chooses  to  think  and  understand  and  conduct  himself  altogether 
as  a  mere  animal,  his  egohood,  on  the  contrary,  makes  energetic  opposition,  and  were 
this  only  that  pride,  which  in  one  breath  denies  continuance  to  the  individual  and 

praises  the 'intellectual  progress' of  the  race In  short :  as  long  as  man  is 

dragged  hither  and  thither  between  both  these  poles  of  his  being,  he  is  rent  asunder 
and  without  peace.  He  does  emerge  from  this  inner  discord  before  he  composes 
himself  in  God."139 

We  admit  that  the  psychology  here  expounded  by  Ebrard  is  an  old 
faculty  psychology,  quite  contrary  to  the  more  recent  functional  point 
of  view.  The  analysis  is  only  of  the  religious  struggle,  which  since  the 
time  of  Paul's  skilful  description,  has  ever  been  the  characteristic  pre- 
conversion  experience  in  the  more  emotional  type  of  religious  devotees. 
But  the  process  by  which  God  is  attained  is  well  brought  out  by  the 
author,  and  it  is  quite  in  accord  with  the  modern  interpretation  given 
by  the  psychologists. 

Many  of  the  psychological  treatments,  however,  of  the  writers  on 
Christian  apologetics  are  chiefly  concerned  to  prove  inductively  the 
validity  of  more  important  Christian  dogmas,  together  with  the  general 
authority  of  the  Christian  religion,  as  they  center  around  the  concept 
of  and  belief  in  God.    Thus  they  are  interested  in  proving  the  super- 

139  Ibid.,  Vol.  I,  pp.  237  ff. 


60  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

natural  origin  of  Christianity.  In  psychology,  however,  we  are  not  in 
the  position  to  discuss,  offhand  at  any  rate,  the  nature  of  the  objective 
reality  which  is  ontologically  conceived  as  the  supernatural.  We  are 
merely  concerned  with  the  objective  evidences  of  the  religious  experience, 
and,  therefore,  a  psychological  contribution  to  the  evidences  of  Christi- 
anity must  be  mainly  on  the  basis  of  such  experiential  facts.140  We 
may  ask,  then,  at  the  outset,  whether  it  is  possible  to  find  any  valid 
psychological  or  subjective  grounds  in  support  of  the  preference  shown 
to  Christianity  by  the  adherents  of  Japanese  religions.  We  are  not  here 
interested  in  the  evidences  of  Christianity  as  such,  and  therefore  we  do 
not  intend  to  apply  our  principles  to  all  the  dogmas  on  the  authority 
of  the  Christian  religion.  We  are  simply  to  discover  the  real  value 
of  the  experiential  grounds  of  the  Christian  belief,  as  based  on  the 
examination  of  our  data. 

In  cases  where  the  object  of  worship  in  the  pre-conversion  experience 
consisted  in  the  nature  gods,  we  found  that  the  sense  of  adoration  is 
grounded  almost  exclusively  upon  the  ignorance  on  the  part  of  the 
worshippers  of  the  real  nature  of  these  gods.  Man  was,  so  to  speak, 
in  the  grip  of  natural  forces,  and  his  recognition  of  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence compelled  him  to  offer  prayers,  invoking  these  fearful  forces  of 
nature  to  bestow  favors  on  him,  so  that  he  might  continue  in  prosperity 
and  peace  of  life.  It  was  the  feeling  of  fear,  then,  which  first  excited  a 
vague  sense  of  worship  and  devotion  in  the  mind  of  primitive  people.141 
This  seems  to  be  precisely  the  case  with  the  Japanese  who  have  inherited 
an  unreflective  type  of  religious  adherence  from  time  immemorial,  as 
so  truthfully  depicted  in  the  Kojiki  and  other  ancient  documents. 
Even  today,  some  children  are  reared  in  an  atmosphere  which  fosters 
the  customs  of  worship  directed  toward  these  deities.  And  thus,  as 
the  immediate  outcome  of  the  filial  duty  demanded  of  every  child,  this 
primitive  and  traditional  form  of  devotion  is  guarded  with  unsparing 
enthusiasm,  though  sometimes  decidedly  conducive  to  undesirable  reli- 
gious revolutions.  Modern  education  too,  in  conjunction  with  the  rapid 
influx  of  Western  thought,  has  awakened  the  Japanese  youths  to  feel 
the  absurdities  in  many  of  these  age-long  practices,  however  honorable 
and  dear  to  their  hearts. 

140 The  objective  realities  become  psychologically  valid,  only  when  they  begin  to  serve  a  definite 
function  in  the  mental  life  of  the  individual,  affording  thus  a  subjective  measure  of  its  value.  A  fuller 
consideration  of  this  point  will  be  taken  up  in  the  following  section. 

141  This  seems  to  be  the  conclusion  reached  by  the  majority  of  workers  in  the  social  origins  (Tiele, 
Hume,  Ribot,  Avebury,  etc.),  though  there  is  a  tendency  among  the  more  recent  writers  to  discredit 
the  place  of  fear,  which  it  once  held-,  on  the  ground  that  fear  is  equally  present  in  any  other  mental  atti- 
tude.    See  Leuba,  A  Psychological  Study  of  Religion,  pp.  1 28  ff. 


THEORETICAL  DEDUCTIONS  61 

All  Japanese  parents  recognize  the  importance  of  Western  learning, 
which  is  freely  taught  in  all  educational  institutions,  and  make  special 
efforts  to  have  their  children  participate  in  the  boon  of  intellectual 
enlightenment.  While  thus  the  younger  generation  is  receiving  a  new 
education  on  the  intellectual  side,  their  religious  practices  are  still  those 
of  olden  days.  The  result  is  a  conflict  between  the  rational  and  the 
superstitious  elements  in  their  experience.  The  rational  demands  of 
them  to  find  meanings  of  whatever  action  they  are  to  perform,  while 
the  superstitious  forces  them  to  obey  blindly  the  customs  and  beliefs 
of  the  bygone  ages,  simply  on  the  ground  that  they  have  been  the  customs 
and  beliefs  of  their  much  respected  ancestors.142  The  superstitious 
exists  in  the  diverse  forms  of  practices  and  observances  that  are  abso- 
lutely meaningless  to  the  rationally  developed  mind.  It  is  comparable 
to  a  mass  of  sensations  and  of  images  which  are  not  properly  coordinated 
with  reference  to  each  other.  A  great  blooming,  buzzing  confusion, 
as  James  would  describe  the  consciousness  of  the  baby,  is  the  state  of 
mind  which  often  exists  in  the  pre-conversion  period.  This  state  of 
conflict  and  unrest,  of  paradox  and  irrationality,  is  expressed  by  Uchim- 
ura:  "With  so  many  gods  to  satisfy  and  appease,  I  was  naturally  a 
fretful,  timid  child." 

The  psychological  process  of  the  transition  from  the  traditional, 
meaningless  and  superstitious  polytheism  to  the  unified,  rational  and 
intelligent  monotheism  is  undoubtedly  a  complex  phenomenon,  involving 
many  forces  that  are  at  work  in  order  to  bring  about  the  result,  as  stated 
by  Stratton.143  The  relatively  simple  and  yet  comprehensive  form  of 
interpretation,  however,  is  that  of  the  phenomenon  of  "the  divided 
self,"  of  which  James  makes  a  full  analysis.  According  to  his  analysis, 
though  it  is  largely  due  to  the  hereditary  traits  of  discordancy  and 
heterogeneity  in  the  native  temperament  of  the  subject,  yet  it  is  only  a 
phase  in  our  normal  development.    He  says: 

"Now  in  all  of  us,  however  constituted,  but  to  a  degree  the  greater  in  proportion 
as  we  are  intense  and  subject  to  diversified  temptations,  and  to  greatest  possible 
degree,  if  we  are  decidedly  psychopathic,  does  the  normal  evolution  of  character 
chiefly  consist  in  the  straightening  out  and  unifying  of  the  inner  self.  The  higher 
and  the  lower  feelings,  the  useful  and  the  erring  impulses,  begin  by  being  a  comparative 
chaos  within  us — they  must  end  by  forming  a  stable  system  of  function  in  right  sub- 
ordination."144 

142 Here  enters  the  element  of  ancestor-worship.  One  Japanese  subject  remarks:  "I  do  not  care 
anything  about  the  religious  practices  that  I  observe  with  regularity.  They  are  not  vital  to  me  in  them- 
selves; but  they  are  of  my  ancestors,  and  I  feel  I  am  duty-bound  to  continue  in  them,  simply  because  of 
my  respect  towards  my  forefathers." 

143  G.  M.  Stratton:  Psychology  of  the  Religious  Life,  1912,  pp.  284  f. 


62  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

The  case  of  Uchimura  clearly  points  out  the  fact  that  the  Japanese 
polytheism  represents  psychologically  a  chaotic,  unreflective  and  incom- 
pletely unified  stage  in  the  nation's  religious  development.  When  such 
systems  of  superstitious  beliefs  are  combined  in  one's  mind  with  the 
rational  elements,  a  bitter  conflict  ensues,  but  the  victory  follows  always 
a  psychological  law  of  development,  and  the  Christian  God  which 
represents  an  ideal  value  is  destined  to  win. 

When  we  examine  the  case  of  Buddhism,  we  discover  a  similar  situa- 
tion, though  intellectually  it  is  more  advanced.  In  the  teachings  of  the 
Gautama,  we  find  no  true  object  of  worship,  and  the  entire  system  remains 
pantheistic  as  Arthur  Lloyd  says : 

"Beneath  the  outward  show  of  theism,  every  form  of  Buddhism  remains  essentially 
pantheistic,  and  they  who  look  below  the  surface  will  find  in  all  sects  (though  more  in 
some  than  in  others)  the  recognition  of  an  underlying  Divine  thing,  identical  with  the 
Universe,  with  the  great  Mind  of  the  Universe,  with  five  faculties  which  constitute 
the  mind,  and  the  five  elements  that  go  to  the  composition  of  the  world  of  matter. 
For  that  thing  they  have  two  mystic  names,  the  one  Abarakakia,  which  may  be  found 
in  philosophic  treatises,  in  general  liturgies,  and  in  hymns,  the  other  (written  in  Sanscrit) 
Kharakavaa,  which  is  inscribed  on  the  wooden  post  that  marks  a  freshly  made  Buddhist 
grave."145 

From  such  a  notion  of  cosmic  belief,  the  fundamental  teaching  becomes 
the  annihilation  of  the  self  which  represents  the  world  of  matter  and 
therefore  of  evil,  and  the  union  with  the  great  principle  of  the  universe. 
The  process  of  attaining  this  state  is  by  man  himself,  for  Buddha  exer- 
cised his  own  self-control  and  meditation,  and  finally  attained  self- 
emancipation.146  "The  god  of  Buddhism  is  the  Buddha  himself,  the 
deified  man,  who  has  become  an  infinite  being  by  entering  Nirvana. 
To  him  prayer  is  addressed,  and  it  is  so  natural  for  man  to  pray,  that  no 
theory  can  prevent  him  from  doing  it."147  Buddha,  indeed,  is  a  person 
who  is  worthy  of  our  hearty  adoration,  because  of  his  high  religious 
attainment,  but  he  is  only  one  of  many  such  persons  we  have  in  the 
history  of  religions.    The  superstitious  belief  in  his  alleged  divinity  is 

144  W.  James:  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,  p.  170. 

146  Arthur  Lloyd:  "Religion  in  Japan,"  The  Times,  Japan  Edition,  1910,  p.  281. 

146  The  account  of  the  process  of  self-emancipation  is  given  in  the  following  recital  of  Buddha:  "  When 
this  knowledge,  this  insight,  had  arisen  within  me,  my  heart  was  set  free  from  the  intoxication  of 
lusts,  set  free  from  the  intoxication  of  becomings,  set  free  from  the  intoxication  of  ignorance. 
In  me,  thus  emancipated,  there  arose  the  certainty  of  that  emancipation.  And  I  came  to  know:  'Rebirth 
is  at  an  end.  The  higher  life  has  been  fulfilled.  What  had  to  be  done  has  been  accomplished.  After  this 
present  life  there  will  be  no  beyond.'  This  last  insight  did  I  attain  to  in  the  last  watch  of  the  night.  Igno- 
rance was  beaten  down,  insight  arose,  darkness  was  destroyed,  the  light  came,  in  as  much  as  I  was  there 
strenuous,  aglow,  master  of  myself."    T.  W.  R.  Davies:  Early  Buddhism,  pp.  35 ff. 

147  J.  F.  Clarke:  Ten  Great  Religions:  An  Essay  in  Comparative  Theology,  1899,  p.  160. 


THEORETICAL  DEDUCTIONS  63 

still  analogous  to  the  case  of  traditional  polytheism  and  ancestor-worship 
of  the  early  Japanese,  at  least  from  the  point  of  view  of  function.  The 
majority  of  our  converts  were  reared  in  the  Buddhistic  atmosphere,148 
and  the  common  experience  of  them  all  is  the  marked  formality  in  the 
practice  of  religious  ceremonies  which  had  been  taught  by  their  parents, 
devoid  of  any  intelligent  understanding  of  such  habits.  The  fact  that 
the  Buddhistic  practice  of  worship  is  deprived  of  rational  content  may 
be  seen  from  the  experience  of  the  converts  themselves.  One  subject 
says:  "When  I  was  in  the  high  school,  I  studied  hard  but  neglected 
my  ritual  devotion  to  the  Buddha,  for  modern  education  made  me 
think  it  foolish  to  worship  an  idol."  Another  says:  "My  parents  and 
all  of  my  relatives  were  Buddhists  and  the  type  of  religious  education 
I  received  was  distinctly  Buddhistic.  From  my  early  boyhood,  I  had 
to  kneel  down  before  the  Buddhist  shrine,  and  read  the  scriptures; 
but  these  practices  were  all  without  any  meaning  on  my  part."  Still 
another  thinks:  "My  parents'  conception  of  the  deities  was  exceedingly 
vague  and  indefinite,  and  I  did  not  understand  them  well." 

These  formal  precepts  and  practices,  however,  must  some  day 
find  their  meaning.  There  is  often  a  voluntary  attempt  to  search  for 
an  interpretation  of  their  practices  in  the  realm  of  intellect  which  is 
usually  regarded  as  the  ultimate  tribunal  of  all  moral  and  religious 
sanctions.  In  this  search  they  meet  the  religious  influence  of  the  West- 
ern learning.  The  form  of  testimony  is  usually  as  follows:  "When  I 
was  sent  to  the  home  of  a  foreigner  for  study,  I  came  in  touch  with 
Christianity  for  the  first  time."  It  is  clear  that  it  is  a  happy  coincidence 
that  Christianity  is  introduced  to  the  Japanese  young  men  when  they 
are  seeking  a  rational  interpretation  of  life.  And  herein  lay  the  reason, 
conscious  or  unconscious  on  the  part  of  the  missionaries,  why  they 
opened  English  Bible  classes  for  the  young  intellectual  aspirants.  The 
thirst  after  knowledge  arises  in  the  mind  of  the  native  youth  about 
the  time  when  pubescence  passes  away  and  adolescence  dawns  with  all 
its  characteristics  of  physiological  and  psychological  needs.  At  this 
crisis,  the  juvenile  mind  is  searching  truth  and,  tired  of  all  the  formalities 
and  superstitious  practices  involved  in  his  early  training,  is  yearning  for 
something  real,  something  which  has  some  emotional  response  to  his 
yearning.  The  mind  seems  to  be  exceedingly  sensitive  to  the  living 
examples  of  the  religious  devotees  who  can  show  the  true  effect  of  their 
religious  faith  in  actual  dealings  with  fellow-beings.    The  desire  for  the 

148  According  to  the  recent  statistics,  there  are  in  Japan  today  140,  208  Christians,  766,  685  Shintoists, 
and    28,510,382    Buddhists. 


64  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

real  the  living  and  the  ideal  is  so  intense  sometimes  that  when  they 
meet  with  an  object  which  fulfills  such  qualifications,  the  religious 
crisis  in  their  experience  ensues:  "I  cried  out  to  Buddha  for  sympathy. 
The  Great  Light  of  Asia  was  standing  beside  me,  but  my  path  was  still 
dim.  ....  I  began  to  think  of  Christ  of  whom  I  had  learned  from 
the  missionary  and  from  the  New  Testament.  I  meditated  upon  His 
humble  birth,  upon  His  common  and  yet  spotless  life,  upon  His  fearless 
and  "marvellous  ministry,  and  upon  His  unselfish  sufferings.  I  lifted 
my  eyes  and  looked  up  to  this  new  Savior." 

The  desire  to  seek  the  ideal  and  the  real,  and  to  struggle  away  from 
the  formal  is  the  psychological  basis  for  Christian  apologetics  over 
against  the  Buddhistic  teachings.  The  Buddha  furnishes  only  the 
development  of  intellectual  power  in  more  educated  minds,  and  in  the 
uneducated,  only  the  blind  obedience  to  the  practices  and  habits  of 
religious  devotion.  It  fails  in  many  cases  to  give  an  idealized  person, 
which  is  the  very  core  of  the  highest  form  of  religious  experience.  Chris- 
tianity comes  to  a  Buddhist  with  a  God  who  is  all-mighty,  all-wise,  all- 
loving  and  in  every  way  a  perfect  and  ideal  personality  which  commands 
the  devotion  and  worship  of  the  most  highly  developed  mind.  It  is 
this  personal  object  of  worship  which  Christianity  presents  that  appeals 
to  the  mature  mind. 

When  we  come  to  consider  the  Confucian  teachings  in  relation  to  the 
Christian  religion,  the  situation  is  still  more  evident,  and  confirms  what 
has  just  been  emphasized  with  reference  to  Buddhism.  Confucianism 
may  be  recognized  as  the  most  satisfactory  religion  of  the  Japanese 
from  the  standpoint  of  Christianity,  for  it  taught  many  individual  and 
social  virtues  that  are  essential  to  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  has, 
therefore,  served  more  significantly  than  any  other  ethnic  religion  the 
function  of  a  propaedeutic  for  the  coming  of  Christianity.  It  is  not,  of 
course,  our  aim  here  to  enumerate  all  the  points  of  contact  between  the 
Christian  ethics  and  the  Confucian  morality,  for  they  resemble  each 
other  in  ways  more  numerous  than  can  be  recounted.  It  suffices  only 
to  point  out  the  essential  difference,  psychologically  considered,  between 
these  two  religions.  The  fundamental  point  of  emphasis  in  Confuscian- 
ism  is  the  moral  culture  by  self-examination  and  meditation.  The 
standard  is  man  himself,  and  not  God.  Thus  it  corresponds  to  what 
we  would  call  morality  which  usually  signifies  the  perfect  relation  between 
human  individuals,  rather  than  religion.  Time  comes,  however,  in  the 
mind  of  the  adolescent  Japanese,  when  man  as  such  becomes  no  longer  a 
sufficient  standard  of  life's  ideal.    Just  as  in  the  case  of  the  Buddhist 


THEORETICAL  DEDUCTIONS  65 

adherent  who  found  it  necessary  to  interpret  the  practices  which  had  been 
superstitiously  observed  prior  to  the  dawn  of  intellectual  aspiration,  so 
the  Confucian  teachings  call  for  idealistic  correlates,  *.  e.,  the  human 
virtues  must  be  translated  into  divine  terminologies,  in  order  to  derive 
true  comfort  on  the  part  of  those  who  have  developed  such  virtues. 
When  this  time  comes,  the  mind  cries  for  the  Infinite,  although  not 
always  positively  and  actively.  The  mind  is  especially  sensitive  during 
this  period,  and  any  expression  of  sympathy,  enthusiasm,  or  devotion 
makes  a  deep  impression.  And  we  have  seen,  it  is  due  to  this  sensi- 
tiveness to  the  emotional  reaction  that  many  of  our  converts  have  found 
the  Christian  God.  The  relation  of  Confucianism  to  Christianity  is 
well  expressed  by  J.  F.  Clarke: 

"Jesus  says  to  the  Chinese  philosopher,  as  he  said  to  the  Jewish  law,  'I  have  come 
not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfill.'  He  fulfills  the  Confucian  reverence  for  the  past  by 
adding  hope  for  the  future;  he  fulfills  its  stability  by  progress,  its  faith  in  man  with 
faith  in  God,  its  interest  in  this  world  with  the  expectation  of  another,  its  sense  of 
time  with  that  of  eternity.  Confucius  aims  at  peace,  order,  outward  prosperity, 
virtue  and  good  morals.  All  this  belongs  also  to  Christianity,  but  Christianity  adds 
a  moral  enthusiasm,  a  faith  in  the  spiritual  world,  a  hope  of  immortal  life,  a  sense  of 
the  Fatherly  presence  of  God."149 

The  remark  of  the  President  of  the  Chinese  Republic  to  John  R.  Mott  is 
very  significant  in  this  connection,  namely,  "while  Confucius  teaches 
us  the  truth,  you  have  been  giving  us  a  message  which  tells  about  the 
power  to  follow  the  truth."150 

We  are,  then,  in  the  position  to  appreciate  the  psychological  grounds 
of  the  faith  in  the  superiority  of  the  Christian  religion  over  against  the 
ethnic  religions  of  Japan.  The  Christian  religion  is  superior,  i.  e., 
more  highly  developed,  because  it  appeals  to  the  process  of  idealization 
which  represents  the  highest  stage  in  the  genetics  of  the  social  conscious- 
ness, and  which  lends  meaning  and  produces  unification  of  the  conceptual 
machinery  built  up  by  the  social  medium.  Idealization  as  we  have 
repeatedly  seen,  involves  an  object,  imagined  or  real,  which  possesses 
the  elements  demanded  of  an  idealized  object,  and  Christianity  succeeds 
in  giving  such  an  object  in  its  concept  of  God.  It  is  not  necessary,  then, 
to  argue  the  superiority  of  Christianity  over  other  religions  because 
of  its  supernatural  revelation;  our  psychological  analysis  has  convinced 

149  Ten  Great  Religions,  p.  59. 

lb0  Students  and  the  World-Wide  Expansion  of  Christianity  (Report  of  Kansas  City  Convention, 
1914),  New  York,  pp.  97  f. 


66  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

us  that  the  subjective,  experiential  grounds  are,  in  fact,  much  more 
scientific  than  the  supernatural.151 

Here  also  we  see  the  force  of  the  argument,  often  encountered  in  the 
philosophy  of  religion,  that  man  is  naturally  religious  and  this  alone  is 
sometimes  thought  to  be  sufficient  to  argue  for  the  necessity  of  religion.152 
We  are,  however,  not  satisfied  merely  to  know  that  man  is  naturally 
religious,  and  often  "incurably  religious,"  but  we  must  be  convinced 
that  we,  as  developing  organisms,  long  continually  for  the  highest  type 
of  religious  development.  From  a  purely  psychological  point  of 
view,  any  person  who  is  seeking  the  world  of  the  Unseen,  who  is  perform- 
ing social  and  religious  obligations,  who  is  true  to  himself,  is  a  religious 
person.  Yet  our  standpoint  is  more  evangelical  and  humane  than  merely 
psychological.  We  need  to  see  a  person  longing  for  the  ideal  reality, 
but  at  the  same  time  we  must  make  sure  that  that  ideal  reality  he  is 
seeking  is  of  the  highest  type  which  truly  corresponds  to  the  psycho- 
logically most  developed  object.  We  see  that  the  converts  have  aban- 
doned their  ethnic  faiths,  not  because  their  religions  are  false,  but  because 
Christianity  affords  them  a  more  perfect  type  of  ideal  personality  which 
meets  their  spiritual  longing. 

2.   THE  SUPERNATURAL  ELEMENT  IN  CONVERSION 

In  the  foregoing  section  we  insisted  that  the  supernatural  element 
in  conversion  or  any  other  religious  experience  is  not  a  psychological 
necessity  in  maintaining  the  proposition  that  Christianity  is  the  most 
highly  developed  of  all  other  religions,  and  yet  we  also  emphasized  the 
fact  that  our  analysis  convinces  us  as  to  the  validity  of  the  concept  of 
God,  the  highest  type  of  the  ideal  object  in  the  social  consciousness. 
We  are  now  to  take  up  this  problem  of  the  supernatural  element  in 
conversion  in  its  psychological  setting.  The  recent  method  of  applying 
a  psychological  point  of  view  in  interpreting  the  religious  phenomena 
has  caused  many  so-called  orthodox  thinkers  and  defenders  of  the 
Christian  religion  to  fear  whether  the  introduction  of  such  a  standpoint 
would  make  their  religion  a  godless  faith.  The  fear  which  is  thus  engen- 
dered is  often  so  serious  for  some  writers  that  their  defensive  attitude 

151  W.  Robertson  Smith  say.s:  "A  religion  which  has  endured  every  possible  trial,  which  has  outlived 
every  vicissitude  of  human  fortunes,  and  which  has  never  failed  to  reassert  its  power  unbroken  in  the 

collapse  of  old  environments declares  itself  by  irresistible  evidence  to  be  a  thing  of  reality 

and  power.  If  the  religion  of  Israel  and  of  Christ  answers  these  tests,  the  miraculous  circumstances  of 
its  promulgation  need  not  be  regarded  as  the  inseparable  accompaniments  of  a  revelation  which  has  the 
historical  stamp  of  reality."     The  Prophets  of  Israel,  p.  10,  quoted  by  I  King,  Op.  cit.,  p.  352. 

I62C/.  S.  S.  Colvin:  "The  Psychological  Necessity  of  Religion."  Am.  Journ.  oj  Psychol.,  Vol.  XIII, 
pp.  80-87. 


THEORETICAL  DEDUCTIONS  67 

assumes  a  polemic  character.  With  us,  however,  it  is  of  little  signifi- 
cance, since  our  chief  concern  has  been  with  reference  to  the  psychology 
of  the  religious  consciousness  as  such,  as  our  delimited  field,  and  there- 
fore the  introduction  of  such  an  ontological  category  as  God  into  our 
discussion  is  only  a  useless  complication  of  our  problem.153 

The  fear  here  referred  to,  however,  is  not  entirely  without  any 
significance  for  a  religious  psychologist,  for  the  supernatural  reality  or 
God,  whatever  be  its  content  to  the  person  experiencing  it,  has  a  definite 
function  to  serve  in  human  life.  We  neither  deny  nor  as  yet  accept  in 
toto  any  such  metaphysical  concept.  The  objective  reality  becomes 
psychologically  relevant  as  soon  as  it  begins  to  have  a  functional  rela- 
tionship with  the  individual.  We  are  not  in  sympathy  with  the  view 
as  formulated  by  some  writers  that  "if  modern  psychology  eliminates 
the  supernatural  from  regeneration,  she  denies  Christianity;  for  according 
to  Christianity's  authoritative  expounder,  the  Christian  religion  can 
begin  only  with  regeneration,  and  regeneration,  to  be  regeneration  must  be 
supernatural."154  Modern  psychology  is  seemingly  indifferent  to  the 
supernatural,  because  it  as  such  does  not  properly  belong  to  its  field;  but 
this  is  far  from  saying  that  it  eliminates  the  supernatural  from  any 
religious  attitude.  Moreover,  our  notion  of  the  supernatural  is  now  so 
advanced  that  we  need  not  to  entertain  it  simply  because  of  its  novelty 
or  miraculousness ;  the  supernatural  can  legitimately  remain  so  if  the 
grandeur  of  the  natural  order  of  things  becomes  so  impressive  as  to 
excite  in  the  individual  the  sense  of  appreciation,  and  we  shall  see  that 
the  concept  of  the  supernatural  is  nothing  but  the  product  of  this  valua- 
tional  attitude,  functioning  as  a  moral  and  religious  stimulus.  Thus  we 
are  led  to  regard  the  supernatural,  not  as  something  altogether  foreign 
to  our  subjects,  but  as  a  natural  paraphernalia  to  the  mature  conscious- 
ness.   How  does  such   a  concept  arise  in  the  individual  and  what  is 

163  In  the  so-called  new  theology,  the  distinction  between  the  natural  and  the  supernatural  is  begin- 
ning to  disappear.  See  the  article  "The  Old  Theology  and  the  New,"  by  W.  A.  Brown,  Harvard  Theol. 
Rev.,  Vol.  IV,  pp.  14 ff. 

164  W.  B.  Greene:  "Has  the  Psychology  of  Religion  Desupernaturalized  Regeneration?"  Biblio- 
theca  Sacra,  Vol.  LXVII,  p.  203.  In  contrast  to  the  statement  of  this  dogmatist,  compare  the  conclusion 
reached  by  the  psychologist:  "What,  then,  does  psychology  permit  us  to  believe  in  respect  to  regeneration? 
First,  it  permits  us  to  believe  anything  whatever  as  to  the  character  of  God;  anything  whatever  as  to  the 
significance  of  the  life  and  death  of  Jesus  for  the  consciousness  of  God;  anything  whatever  as  to  the  state 
of  helplessness  that  man  would  be  in  if  God's  disposition  toward  him  were  different  from  what  it  is; 
anything  whatever  as  to  the  ultimate  source  of  human  goodness.  It  permits  any  hypothesis  as  to  the 
power  of  Jesus  to  transform  a  human  soul,  and  the  only  function  of  psychology  with  respect  to  such 
hypothesis  is  to  see  that  the  facts  of  mind  involved  are  correctly  described  and  related  to  one  another 
and  to  their  contemporary  and  historical  conditions."  G.  A.  Coe,  Am.  Journ.  of  Theol.,  Vol.  XII,  pp. 
366  ff. 


68  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

its  validity  in  the  human  experience,  are  the  problems  to  which  we 
must  now  turn. 

To  the  mind  of  the  theological  onlooker,  the  conception  of  the  super- 
natural grows  not  from  the  gradual  development  of  the  religious  experi- 
ence, but  more  probably  from  its  sudden  and  abrupt  change,  often 
witnessed  in  emotional  converts.  The  notion  of  the  miraculous  or 
rather  the  unnatural  was,  then,  the  direct  progenitor  of  the'  idea  of  the 
supernatural.  This  vague  notion  of  wonder  thus  aroused  marks  the 
primitivity  of  all  religious  behaviors.  In  the  case  of  the  old  Yamato 
religion  of  Japan,  it  was  this  notion  which  gave  birth  to  polytheistic 
beliefs.  "In  the  Kojiki,  the  oldest  of  the  Japanese  sacred  writings, 
'a  Kami  or  deity  is  anything  wonderful,  god  or  man,  rock,  stream,  or 
snake,  whatever  is  surprising  or  sensational.'  There  were  no  sharp 
dividing  lines  between  men  and  gods.  The  Kamis  were  distinguished 
by  such  qualities  as  strength,  or  brute  force,  not  moral  traits."155  To 
an  unreflective  type  of  mind,  a  wonderful  or  surprising  phenomenon 
arouses  a  sense  of  mystery  and  this  sense  is  personified  as  a  projection 
of  his  own  being.  Thus  the  deities  come  to  be  created,  in  one  sense  at 
least,  out  of  that  mental  context.  The  discernment  of  the  supernatural 
in  the  emotional  subjects  is  also  a  creation  grounded  upon  the  recognition 
of  the  wonderful  and  the  unnatural. 

But  upon  a  more  careful  examination,  we  shall  discover  that  the  cases 
of  so-called  sudden  religious  conversion  possess  no  really  unnatural 
character.  In  none  of  the  subjects  we  have  collected  we  can  trace  an 
unnatural  sequence  of  experiences.  What  seems  to  be  thought  unnatural 
in  a  sudden  religious  awakening  is  only  an  illusion  due  to  the  unreflective 
attitude  of  the  casual  observer.  When  we  come  to  exercise  our  close 
scrutiny  over  the  experiences  of  our  converts,  we  find  a  marked  .com- 
munity of  mentality  in  the  pre-  and  post-conversion  life.  The  case  of 
K.  Uchimura  makes  this  point  clear.  With  reference  to  his  religious 
life  before  he  became  a  Christian,  he  relates  as  follows: 

"I  early  learned  to  honor  my  nation  above  all  others,  and  to  worship  my  nation's 
gods  and  no  others.  I  thought  I  could  not  be  forced  even  by  death  itself  to  avow 
my  allegiance  to  any  other  god  than  my  country's.  I  should  be  a  traitor  to  my  coun- 
try, and  an  apostate  from  my  national  faith  by  accepting  a  faith  which  is  exotic  in 

its  origin One  afternoon  I  resorted  to  a  heathen  temple  in  the  vicinity, 

said  to  have  been  authorized  by  the  Government  to  be  the  guardian-god  of  the  district. 
At  some  distance  from  the  sacred  mirror  which  represented  the  invisible  presence  of 
the  deity,  I  prostrated  myself  upon  coarse  dried  grass,  and  there  burst  into  a  prayer 
as  sincere  and  genuine  as  any  I  have  ever  offered  to  my  Christian  God  since  then. 

165  Irving  King:  The  Development  of  Religion,  p.  241,  footnote. 


THEORETICAL  DEDUCTIONS  69 

I  besought  that  guardian-god  to  speedily  extinguish  the  new  enthusiasm  in  my  college, 
and  punish  those  who  obstinately  refused  to  disown  the  strange  god,  and  to  help 
me  in  my  humble  endeavor  in  the  patriotic  cause  I  was  upholding  then."156 

The  man  who  has  had  faith  in  his  native  guardian-god,  when  once  he 
becomes  a  Christian,  carries  over  the  same  degree  of  faith  and  enthusi- 
asm into  the  newly  accepted  religion.  He  now  proves  to  be  an  ardent 
upholder  and  preacher  of  Christianity.  His  aggressiveness  is  seen  in 
the  conversion  of  his  father  occasioned  by  his  untiring  enthusiasm, 
and  the  subsequent  conversion  of  all  the  rest  of  his  family  and  rela- 
tives.157 In  such  a  case  as  this,  we  see  a  natural  sequence  of  the  states  of 
consciousness  at  the  successive  stages  of  development.  The  common 
element  exists  in  both  before  and  after  conversion,  namely,  the  same 
degree  of  loyalty  and  devotion  exercised  toward  what  the  subject  con- 
siders to  be  the  object  worthy  of  his  worship  and  trust.  The  only 
distinctive  element  in  the  post-conversion  experience  is  the  acquisition 
of  the  Christian  God  who  is  far  superior  to  the  guardian-god  of  the 
district.  This  change  from  the  old  to  the  new  object  of  worship  repre- 
sents psychologically  a  transition  from  one  level  of  mentality  to  another, 
and  the  sequence  follows  the  law  of  mental  growth.  The  newly  acquired 
object  of  faith  is  thus  a  product  of  psychical  evolution,  determined  to  a 
large  extent  by  the  social  forces  that  are  at  work  on  the  convert. 

From  such  a  point  of  view,  it  may  seem  that  we  are  altogether  dis- 
missing the  supernatural  element  or  God  from  our  religious  experience. 
But  this  is  far  from  being  the  case.  In  fact,  no  psychology  of  religion 
can  be  complete  without  at  least  attempting  to  explain  the  origin  and 
function  of  the  supernatural  in  religion.  Some  critics  of  the  psychology 
of  religion  have  advanced  a  charge  that  the  newly  formulated  science 
has  left  out  its  God  in  an  eager  search  for  the  concrete  in  human 
experience.158  While  this  is  true  in  some  cases,  the  charge  as  directed 
toward  the  science  of  religious  psychology  as  a  whole  cannot  be  fair, 
for  we  may  find  some  day,  when  a  vast  amount  of  reliable  data  shall 
have  been  accumulated,  that  the  supernatural  is  a  legitimate  category 
in  our  science,  as  Pratt  rightly  says: 

" while  every  reference  to  anything  'supernatural'  is  barred  out  from 

psychology  as  a  natural  science,  it  might  conceivably  be  found  that  the  facts  as  col- 
lected and  described  could  best  be  explained  and  accounted  for  on  some  hypothesis 

168  K.  Uchimura:  How  I  Became  a  Christian,  pp.  11  f.  The  new  enthusiasm  here  alluded  to  is  the 
revival  movement  of  Christianity  which  caught  the  upper  class  by  storm. 

167  Ibid.,   pp.   57-59. 

168 G.  B.  Foster:  "Concerning  the  Truths  of  Religious  Ideas,"  Bib.  World,  Vol.  XLI,  p.  65 f.  The 
criticism  as  applied  to  Leuba's  position  is  undoubtedly  correct. 


70  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

other  than  the  somewhat  naive  naturalism  adopted  by  the  majority  of  scientists. 
It  might,  for  example,  turn  out  that  the  data  in  hand  point  toward  some  such  hypothesis 
as  that  of  Professor  James — a  'wider  self  or  psychic  'beyond,'  in  touch  with  the  sub- 
conscious portion  of  our  lives.  If  further  investigation  continued  to  point  more  and 
more  in  this  direction,  and  new  evidence  for  the  existence  of  such  a  'beyond'  were 
forthcoming,  new  facts  which  seemed  best  explicable  on  such  a  supposition,  this 
hypothesis  would  have  to  be  regarded  as  a  perfectly  scientific  one,  and  the  'beyond' 
would  not  be  something  supernatural  but  just  one  of  the  regular  facts  of  nature, 
like  the  Western  hemisphere  or  the  process  of  digestion  or  the  state  of  hypnosis."169 

Any  student  of  religious  experience  will  not  deny  that  the  core  of 
religion  is  always  the  Supreme  Being  in  whom  "we  live,  move  and  have 
our  being."  In  popular  parlance,  we  may  call  it  God,  or  the  supernatural 
or  any  other  appropriate  name  we  may  choose,  but  in  psychology,  we 
are  loathe  to  call  it  the  sw^rnatural,  for  such  a  term  is  a  linguistic 
paradox  which  at  once  defies  all  scientific  treatment.160  From  our 
point  of  view,  we  merely  analyse  the  religious  experience  and  attempt 
to  interpret  it  in  terms  of  the  laws  already  established  as  natural.  There- 
fore, if  we  have  any  experience  indicating  the  existence  of  such  a  reality, 
we  at  once  begin  to  explain  the  fact  by  considering  its  origin,  nature  and 
function.  As  we  examined  the  religious  experience  of  the  group  of 
Japanese  Christians,  we  discovered  just  such  an  objective  existence 
and  noted  that  it  begins  to  function  when  the  developing  youth  reaches 
the  stage  of  idealization,  whether  occasioned  by  a  psychological 
crisis  or  built  up  gradually  by  a  slow  intellectual  and  social  process. 
It  exists  only  when  it  becomes  a  satisfactory  explanation  of,  or  a  means 
of  giving  meaning  to,  the  facts  of  human  life.  The  immature  mind  with 
a  vast  amount  of  heterogeneous  bits  of  experiences  is  constantly  strug- 
gling to  find  an  adequate  source  of  conceptual  enlightenment,  and  this 
struggle  causes  him  to  interpret  life  in  one  way  or  the  other,  endeavoring 
to  attain  the  most  consistent  meaning  to  his  experience.  The  discovery 
of  an  objective  existence  in  his  thought  world  answers  just  such  a  craving 
of  the  youthful  mind,  and  as  soon  as  this  state  is  attained,  he  surrenders 
his  life,  because  of  the  imperiousness  of  this  existence.  This  vision 
of  an  objective  reality  dawns  upon  the  growing  mind  only  as  a  con- 
struct or  attitude  which  has  a  long  natural  history  of  its  own.     It  does 

159  J.  B.  Pratt:  "The  Psychology  of  Religion,"  Harvard  Tkeol.  Rev.,  Vol.  I,  pp.  145  f. 

160 Irving  King  says:  "In  the  science  of  religion,  therefore,  we  do  not  need  to  discuss  the  question 
as  to  whether  there  may  be  a  connection  between  the  natural  and  the  supernatural.  There  may  be  a  con- 
nection, but  the  categories  of  experience  are  not  capable  of  describing  it.  The  scientific  examination  of 
religion  cannot,  of  course,  deny  the  reality  of  the  supernatural  element  in  the  various  contents  and  pro- 
cesses of  the  religious  consciousness.  It  simply  holds  that  the  relation  of  one  to  the  other  is  such  as  cannot 
be  described  in  phenomenal  terms."     The  Development  of  Religion,  p.  12. 


THEORETICAL  DEDUCTIONS  71 

not  come  as  a  disconnected  image  of  the  ideal,  but  as  the  natural  con- 
summation of  the  individual's  development. 

Such  an  ontogenetic  view  of  the  origin  of  the  concept  of  the  divine 
or  the  supernatural  affords  much  illumination  as  to  the  function  it 
performs  in  life.  We  have  had  occasions  to  note  that  the  religious 
attitude  usually  arises  as  a  means  of  overcoming  the  various  ills  of  life. 
To  put  this  fact  in  the  terminology  of  Christ  himself,  religions  arise  as  a 
means  of  attaining  a  fuller  and  richer  development  of  life  itself,  as  he 
says:  "I  came  that  they  may  have  life  and  may  have  it  abundantly." 
The  concept  of  God  is  built  up  in  a  way  analogous  to  the  rise  of  the 
religious  attitude,  for  it  is  the  very  nucleus  of  religion  itself,  around  which 
centers  all  practices  and  beliefs. 

The  function  of  the  divine  is  to  furnish  an  emotional  as  well  as  con- 
ceptual outlet  in  the  moment  of  severe  tension  generally  experienced 
at  the  time  of  a  critical  situation  in  life.  It  has  been  advocated,  with 
much  psychological  significance,  that  fear  is  the  direct  progenitor  of 
the  notion  of  the  supernatural,  especially  in  primitive  life.  Faith  in 
the  supernatural  gives  comfort  and  assurance  on  the  emotional  side 
and  meaning  and  reason  on  the  conceptual  side.  It  is  the  outcome 
of  an  evaluating  process  of  any  given  act,  at  first  devoid  of  any  such 
signification,  but  the  mental  effect  of  such  an  act,  especially  when  it  is 
of  a  critical  nature,  tends  to  arouse  a  tendency  to  interpret  the  act. 
Therefore,  when  such  an  evaluating  process  comes  to  a  successful  close, 
the  supernatural  is  thought  to  be  functioning  in  the  life  of  the  experienc- 
ing subject  as  a  soothing,  relieving  and  benevolent  reality.  Such  an 
attitude  is  the  distinguishing  mark  of  religiosity. 

Whether  the  notion  of  the  supernatural  is  real  or  merely  imagined, 
its  validity  is  psychologically  unaltered,  for  the  effect  that  is  produces 
in  the  life  of  the  individual  is  practically  the  same.  James  make, 
this  point  clear,  when  he  says:  "All  our  attitudes,  moral,  practical,  or 
emotional,  as  well  as  religious,  are  due  to  the  'object'  of  our  consciousnesss 
the  things  which  we  believe  to  exist,  whether  really  or  ideally,  along  with 
ourselves.  Such  objects  may  be  present  to  our  senses,  or  they  may  be 
present  only  to  our  thought.  In  either  case  they  elicit  from  us  a  reaction; 
and  the  reaction  due  to  things  of  thought  is  notoriously  in  many  cases 
as  strong  as  that  due  to  sensible  presence.     It  may  be  even  stronger."161 

As  to  the  reality  of  the  object  of  worship  we  need  not  enter  into  a 
minute  discussion,  for  no  less  eminent  a  psychologist  than  James  has 

161  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,  p.  53. 


72  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

given  us  a  complete  treatment  of  the  subject,  and  whatever  we  have  to 
say  would  only  amount  to  an  inadequate  reproduction  of  the  psychologi- 
cal account  set  forth  by  him.162  We  close  this  section  by  simply  stating 
a  defence  of  the  concept  of  the  supernatural  as  a  legitimate  category 
of  the  psychology  of  religion.  Psychology,  as  we  conceive  it,  neither 
denies  nor  yet  blindly  accepts  the  notion  of  the  divine  or  the  supernatural; 
it  simply  endeavors  to  explain  that  notion  in  terms  of  its  own  categories. 
The  fact  that  it  avoids  the  use  of  such  terms  as  the  supernatural  and  the 
divine  is  by  no  means  indicative  of  its  insistence  either  on  their  spurious- 
ness  or  irrelevancy.  Wherever  psychology  speaks  of  the  appreciative, 
evaluative  and  idealizing  process,  it  has  the  supernatural  and  the  divine 
in  those  phases  of  the  social  consciousness;  and  whenever  it  elaborates 
on  the  function  of  the  ideal  in  human  life,  it  recognizes  the  validity  of 
God.163  Such  being  our  contention,  we  are  not  to  eliminate  the  -super- 
natural element  from  the  phenomenon  of  conversion,  and  yet  we  are 
to  do  all  we  can  to  find  a  natural  cause  that  can  be  stated  and  explained 
in  experiential  and  subjective  terms,  for  only  by  so  doing  can  we  hope 
to  advance  the  true  spirit  of  the  psychology  of  religion  as  a  branch  of 
natural  science. 

3.      A  PSYCHOLOGICAL  CRITERION  OF  MORALITY  AND  RELIGION 

The  problem  of  this  section  seems  at  first  irrelevant,  for  we  all  agree 
that  in  practical  life  at  least,  morality  and  religion  are  so  blended  that 
any  theoretical  distinction  between  them  appears  almost  an  impossibility. 
In  a  closer  psychological  scrutiny,  however,  these  two  apparently  identical 
states  of  consciousness  do  not  represent  the  same  phenomena.  The  fact 
that  these  two  are  so  organically  co-active  has  led  many  a  psychologist 
of  religious  experience  into  unnecessary  misunderstanding,164  due  prima- 
rily to  the  failure  to  follow  out  the  order  of  development  in  the  indi- 

U-Ibid.,  Lecture  III. 

163  Here  the  entire  gamut  of  the  literature  on  the  psychology  of  mysticism  falls  in  line.  One  of  the 
latest  works  on  the  subject  has  the  following  statement  relative  to  the  workings  of  the  subconscious: 

" subconsciousness  cannot  be  left  to  its  own  resources;  it  seems  rather  an  instrument  in 

the  hands  of  a  superior  power,  God.  As  psychologists,  our  conclusions  cannot  affirm  God;  but  we  have 
not  the  right  to  exclude  Him,  in  fact  psychology  seems  to  point  to  Him."  Jule  Pacheu:  L'Expirience 
mystique  et  I'Activite  Subconscienle.  1911,  reviewed  by  H.  Delacroix,  Psychol.  Bull.,  Vol.  IX,  pp.  470 ff. 

164  Compare  the  statement  of  this  situation  by  Leuba:  "The  extent  of  the  literature  on  the  relation 
of  morality  to  religion  is  amazing.  Almost  every  conceivable  kind  of  relation  has  been  attributed  to  them. 
It  has  been  maintained,  for  instance,  that  morality  has  no  existence  outside  of  religion;  that  it  is  one  of  the 
fruits  of  religion;  that  purified  religion  is  morality;  and  that  no  connection  whatever  exists  between  morality 
and  religion.  But  if  one  accepts  the  conception  of  religion  offered  in  this  book,  the  relation  to  religion  of 
ethical  appreciation  and  needs  does  not  present  a  particular  problem."  A  Psychological  Study  of  Religion, 
1912,  p.  195. 


THEORETICAL  DEDUCTIONS  73 

vidual.  We  shall  endeavor  to  analyse  in  this  section  the  ontogenetic 
relationship  existing  between  morality  and  religion. 

The  conclusions  of  recent  studies  in  child  psychology  seem  to  favor 
the  view  that  the  child  is  not,  strictly  speaking,  a  religious  being.165 
Like  all  other  mental  attainments,  religious  consciousness  must  come 
as  the  result  of  a  long  social  process.  Up  to  the  dawn  of  puberty,  at 
any  rate,  the  child's  primary  business  is,  as  Dewey  has  said  long  ago, 
to  grow,  to  develop,  and  to  become  a  man.  He  is  not  even  a  man; 
he  is  only  a  candidate  for  such  a  title.166  It  is  true  that  there  are  some 
hereditary  traits  which  tend  to  lead  some  observers  to  the  view  that  the 
child  has  a  religious  instinct  and  at  an  early  stage  its-  manifestation  is 
discernible.167  The  modern  view,  however,  accepts  a  strictly  evolu- 
tionary standpoint,  and  makes  little  of  the  hereditary  potentialities  of 
this  or  that  mental  trait,  but  rather  believes  in  the  overt  character  of  all 
organic  behaviors.  All  mental  capacities,  be  they  religious  or  moral, 
are  but  the  outcome  of  the  consciousness  following  such  acts.  Therefore, 
the  child  cannot  so  readily  attain  the  moral  or  religious  consciousness, 
if  the  social  environment  is  devoid  of  these  mental  states  which  have  a 
long  developmental  history.  The  native  endowments  are  serviceable 
only  when  they  receive  proper  forms  of  stimulus  to  call  them  out  into 
full  functions,  and  this  very  process  of  furnishing  a  right  kind  of  envi- 
ronment to  the  growing  child  is  the  psychological  justification  of  all  edu- 
cative endeavors.  The  organic  endowments  are  by  no  means  perma- 
nent; they  die  out  if  no  appropriate  stimulus  is  given  at  a  suitable  period, 
and  this  is  just  the  reason  why  some  unfavorably  situated  children  grow 
to  be  socially  abnormal.  It  has  been  discovered  that  criminals  and 
subnormals  are  created  largely  by  the  unfavorable  environment  in  which 
they  were  reared,  and  the  charitable,  corrective,  penal,  judicial,  and  other 
benevolent  institutions  for  this  class  of  children  are  only  endeavoring 
to  restore  to  them  proper  surroundings  in  order  to  overcome  their  develop- 
mental defects. 

Such  an  intelligent  understanding  of  the  causative  factors  in  child 
development  is  directly  due  to  the  result  of  modern  investigations  in 
social  psychology  in  its  broad  aspect.     Social  psychology  teaches  us 

156  See  E.  S.  Ames:  The  Psychology  of  Religious  Experience,  p.  209.     Also  the  article  by  E.  D.  Star- 
buck:  "The  Child-Mind  and  Child-Religion,"  Bib.  World,  XXXI,  (1908),  p.  101. 

166  This  is,  of  course,  true  of  the  adult  form  also.  Compare  the  discussion  given  by  G.  B.  Foster: 
The  Function  of  Religion  in  Man's  .Struggle  for  Existence,  p.  43. 

167  For  example,  H.  R.  Marshall:  Instinct  and  Reason,  pp.  223  f.,  footnote.  The  so-called  Child- 
Study  Movement  has  led  many  investigators  to  adopt  this  vi'.-.v. 


74  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

that  the  child's  development  is  essentially  a  social  process.  Baldwin 
has  stated  this  conception  in  a  most  suggestive  form  when  he  says: 

"The  'ego'  and  the  'alter'  are  thus  born  together.  Both  are  crude  and  unre- 
flective,  largely  organic.  And  the  two  get  purified  and  clarified  together  by  this  two- 
fold reaction  between  project  and  subject,  and  between  subject  and  eject.  My  sense 
of  myself  grows  by  imitation  of  you,  and  my  sense  of  yourself  grows  in  terms  of  my 
sense  of  yourself.  But  ego  and  alter  are  thus  essentially  social;  each  is  a  socius  and 
each  is  an  imitative  creation."168 

Such  an  ontogenetic  account  of  child  development  is  now  suggestively 
carried  over  into  the  realm  of  the  study  of  religious  experience.  Recently 
there  have  appeared  a  number  of  treatises  on  the  psychology  of  religion, 
which  apply  the  social  criterion  to  the  development  of  the  religious 
consciousness.169  This  standpoint  has,  undoubtedly,  shed  a  flood  of 
light  upon  the  genetic  nature  of  religion,  and  proved  its  unusual  pro- 
ductivity as  a  standpoint;  but  it  too  has  fallen  into  a  pitfall  always 
created  by  the  wholesale  adoption  of  a  new  method  in  any  science. 
The  method  enabled  the  science  to  attain  a  remarkable  development, 
but  the  hilarious  emotion  generated  by  such  a  success  sadly  blinded  the 
eyes  of  the  investigators  so  as  to  cause  a  failure  to  discriminate  the 
objects  so  tenaciously  awaiting  a  still  further  analysis.  One  glaring 
example  is  found  in  Ames'  elaboration  of  the  relation  between  morality 
and  religion  from  the  standpoint  of  social  development  in  which  the 
psychological  distinction  is  reduced  to  its  minimum.     He  says: 

" The  term  moral  has  been  used  to  designate  those  ideals  which 

pertain  particularly  to  human  social  welfare,  in  distinction  from  the  claims  of  religion 
which  seeks  authority  and  action  for  conduct  in  the  will  of  a  deity.  The  contrast 
between  moral  and  religious  conduct  belongs  to  that  conception  of  the  world  which 
makes  a  rigid  distinction  between  the  natural  and  supernatural,  between  the  human 
and  divine.  But  if  religion  is  identified  with  the  most  intimate  and  vital  phases  of 
the  social  consciousness,  then  the  distinction  between  morality  and  religion  is  not 
real."170 

A  similar  position  is  expressed  by  the  author  in  connection  with  non- 
religious  persons: 

"With  psychologists  there  is  more  of  a  tendency  to  the  view  that  man  possesses 
no  special  instinct  or  endowment  which  makes  him  religious If  religion 

168  J.  M.  Baldwin:  Mental  Development  in  the  Child  and  the  Race  (1st  ed.),  1894,  p.  335.  This  view 
is  elaborated  in  his  later  work,  Social  and  Ethical  Interpretations,  1897. 

169 E.  g.,  Irving  King:  "The  Differentiation  of  the  Religious  Consciousness,"  Psychol.  Rev.  Monog. 
Supple.,  Vol.  V,  No.  4,  and  The  Development  of  Religion.  1909;  E.  S.  Ames:  The  Psychology  of  Religious 
Experience,  1910;  J.  H.  Leuba:  A  Psychological  Study  of  Religion,  1912;  H.  M.  Stanley:  "On  the  Psy- 
chology of  Religion,"  Psychol.  Rev.,  Vol.  V,  pp.  254-278. 

170  Op.  cit.,  p.  285.  The  statement  of  Starbuck  quoted  by  the  author  in  support  of  this  point  dis- 
proves rather  than  proves  the  author's  contention.     Starbuck  simply  says  that  moral  conduct  is  the  core 

of  religion,  and  that  it  becomes  or  develops  into  a  religion,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  phrase:  " 

it  was  this  moral  life  which  afterwards  constituted  the  substance  of  religion."      P.  288,  (italics  mine). 


THEORETICAL  DEDUCTIONS  75 

is  viewed  as  participation  in  the  ideal  value  of  the  social  consciousness,  then  those 
who  do  not  share  in  this  social  consciousness  are  non-religious.  The  psychological 
criterion  of  a  man's  religion  is  the  degree  and  range  of  his  social  consciousness."171 

This  statement  is  no  doubt  applicable  to  religion,  but  it  is  too  general 
and  indefinite  to  be  a  psychological  criterion  of  religion,  for  it  may  be 
applied  with  equal  fitness  to  all  other  forms  of  consciousness.172  Con- 
sciousness, to  whichever  variety  it  belongs,  to  be  consciousness  at  all, 
must  needs  be  social  both  in  origin  and  in  nature.  To  say,  therefore, 
that  the  test  of  religion  is  the  degree  and  range  of  one's  social  con- 
sciousness, is  to  define  religion  only  in  terms  of  its  genus;  it  needs  to  be 
further  differentiated  by  its  species.  Religion,  to  be  sure,  involves  the 
totality  of  psychical  life,  but  in  a  psychological  discussion  where  we  aim 
at  theoretical  accuracy  our  terminologies  must  be  free  from  every  element 
of  generality. 

The  adoption  of  the  social  conception  of  religious  development,  then, 
in  the  realm  of  religious  psychology,  first  clearly  accentuated  perhaps 
by  Durkheim,  is  indeed  an  ingenious  project,  and  certainly  illuminating 
in  many  of  the  intricate  aspects  of  religious  experience.  It  opened  up 
almost  a  new  field  in  the  study  of  the  phylogeny  of  religious  supersti- 
tions, rituals,  beliefs  and  ideas;  it  added  a  new  method  in  the  analysis 
of  the  personal  experiences  of  religious  devotees  and  made  it  possible 
to  formulate  a  social  principle  of  individual  attainment;  it  even  raised 
the  science  of  religious  psychology  itself  to  the  standard  of  scientific 
precision;  and  it  will  prove  to  be  the  most  fruitful  method  yet  discovered 
by  the  investigators  in  this  field.173  Admitting  the  feasibility  of  these 
points,  the  result  reached  by  such  a  book  as  that  from  which  we  have 
quoted  only  raises  a  very  obstinate  question  as  to  the  strictly  psycho- 
logical distinction  between  morality  and  religion.  Both  morality  and 
religion  can  legitimately  be  regarded  as  the  products  of  social  develop- 
ment, but  there  is  a  marked  difference  between  them  if  we  endeavor  to 
dissect  them  more  critically  with  the  scalpel  of  social  psychology. 

m  Ibid.,  pp.  335  S. 

172  This,  however,  is  more  in  line  with  popular  usage,  for  in  common  parlance,  religion  is  a  very  broad 
term,  comprising  all  the  way  from  simple  superstitions  to  highly  abstracted  philosophies  of  life.  The 
criterion  suggested  here  applies  more  fittingly  to  morality,  for,  as  McDougall  defines,  morality  is  "the 
performance  of  social  duty,  the  duty  prescribed  by  society,  as  opposed  to  the  mere  following  of  the  prompt- 
ings of  egoistic  impulses."     Introduction  to  Social  Psychology,  p.  3 13. 

173  This  standpoint  has  been  mildly  criticized  by  Stratton:  "The  reverence  which  men  have  shown 
the  Highest  has  usually  been,  not  alone  because  it  fulfilled  their  social  needs,  but  also  because  of  its  satis- 
faction to  sensuous  and  aesthetic  and  causal  and  logical  needs,  which  grow,  it  is  true,  by  the  mutual  friction 
and  support  of  men,  but  seem  not  to  originate  in  this  way  nor  to  be  part  and  parcel  of  the  social  feeling 
itself."     Psychology  of  the  Religious  Life,  p.  337. 


76  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

In  what  Baldwin  calls  the  "Dialectic  of  Personal  Growth,"  he  points 
out  very  instructively  the  three  stages  in  the  development  of  self  and 
social  consciousness.174  In  working  through  such  a  scheme  as  this, 
however,  we  are  struck  with  its  apparent  shortcoming,  namely,  his  failure 
to  account  adequately  for  the  genesis  and  development  of  the  religious 
sentiment  which  he  discusses  at  length.  His  genetic  account  of  the 
religious  sentiment  is  in  the  main  a  psychological  truism,  expressed  in 
very  enlightening  language,  and  we  shall  see  later  that  our  analysis 
also  will  lead  to  a  somewhat  similar  conclusion.  In  the  analysis  of 
the  religious  consciousness,  his  "Dialectic  of  Personal  Growth"  does  not 
take  into  account  all   the  elements  mentioned   by   the   author.     We 

refer  to  his  statement,  " as  the  ethical  sense  now  grows 

up,  the  growing  sense  of  personality  becomes  the  theatre  of  new  and 
still  more  profound  mysteries  to  the  child.  He  now  gets  within  himself 
the  new  thought  of  personality  called  the  ideal  which  demands  recogni- 
tion over  and  above  the  rival  selves  which  have  hitherto  played  back 
and  forth  in  his  mind."175  In  order  to  explain  the  genesis  of  this  ideal, 
he  is  forced  to  make  use  of  his  notion  of  "projection"  which  he  designated 
as  the  first  stage  in  development,  comprising  anything  uncertain,  any 
group  of  experiences  unstable  in  its  prophetic  and  historical  meaning.176 
It  may  be  possible  to  see  the  rise  of  an  ideal  in  the  stage  of  projection, 
but  it  is  not  adequate  to  cover  a  real  ideal,  if  the  term  is  taken  to  mean 
only  what  his  definition  calls  for.  We  feel  that  one  other  still  higher 
step  should  be  added,  namely,  what,  from  the  lack  of  a  more  appro- 
priate word  and  following  his  Latin  derivatives,  we  may  style  "super- 
jective"  stage.  It  is  certainly  mysterious  to  find  Baldwin  bringing  what 
he  calls  the  first  stage  to  account  for  the  ideal  engendered  in  the  religious 
sentiment.  We  must  have  a  little  more  adequate  terminology  to  explain 
the  very  highest  form  of  human  consciousness.177  After  ejection  has 
fully  come  to  function,  the  mind,  by  means  of  cognitive  development 
in  the  forms  of  imagination,  association,  ideation  and  what  not,  reaches 
still  further,  finding  in  the  realm  of  the  Unseen  the  existence  of  an  ideal 
being.  This  ideal  need  not  necessarily  be  a  reality  present  to  the  senses, 
nor  even  a  supernatural  being  in  its  ontological  sense.  The  feeling  of 
this  reality  may  arouse  the  sense  of  dependence  and  that  of  reverence, 

174  J.  M.  Baldwin:  Mental  Development  in  the  Child  and  the  Race,  (1st  ed.),  p. 335. 
176  Social  and  Ethical  Interpretations,  p.  362. 

176  Ibid.,  p.  13. 

177  The  word  "projection"  is  strengthened  by  Baldwin  by  supplementing  it  with  such  terms  as 
"ethical,"  "mysterious,"  "intellectual,"  etc.  It  is  hard  to  see,  however,  how  the  profound  mystery  can 
beget  the  ideal  being. 


THEORETICAL  DEDUCTIONS  77 

but  these  are  not  always  the  requirements  of  the  religious  consciousness. 
The  very  act  of  grasping  such  a  reality, — not  necessarily  its  objective 
manifestations, — is  indicative  of  one's  religious  development,  for  the 
possibility  of  reaching  that  stage  assumes  the  social  development 
which  underlies  it. 

Frequently  this  grasping  of  the  ideal  personality  is  a  sudden  event, 
although  genetically  viewed,  it  requires  a  long  and  patient  struggle 
for  its  complete  attainment.  Our  cases  of  religious  development  have 
given  us  some  proofs  for  this  statement.  The  training  that  the  native 
religions  give  the  Japanese  people  is  more  or  less  representative  of  the 
three  stages  of  Baldwin's  dialectic.  The  old  Yamato  religion  with 
Shintoism  as  its  later  development  corresponds  to  the  "projective" 
stage,  where  the  sense  of  mystery,  the  feeling  of  adoration,  and  the 
impression  of  the  fearful  deities  characterize  the  primitivity  of  social 
development.  Buddhism,  as  a  step  in  advance,  marks  the  rise  of  intel- 
lectual powers,  while  Confucianism  rapidly  rises  to  the  ethical  standard, 
where  perfection  of  manhood  in  its  social  relationships  becomes  the 
ideal  to  be  attained.  All  these  so-called  religions  are  preparatory  to 
the  real  religion  which  presents  the  true  ideal  of  social  development,178 
and  we  have  clearly  seen,  at  least  in  the  experiences  of  our  converts, 
that  such  an  ideal  is  found  in  the  Christian  God  as  described  and  inter- 
preted by  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Therefore,  when  the  Christian  religion 
is  presented  to  the  Japanese  who  are  already  mature  in  their  social 
consciousness  and  are  trained  in  religious  aspiration,  it  takes  often  little 
effort  to  make  the  God  of  Christianity  perfectly  intelligible  and  to  con- 
vince them  of  His  superiority  over  the  gods  of  other  religions. 

The  realization  of  this  religious  ideal,  therefore,  is  not  the  wilful 
anticipation,  nor  yet  the  premeditated  imagination  that  can  be  experi- 
enced voluntarily.  There  seems  to  come  at  the  apex  of  the  developing 
social  consciousness  a  moment  when  a  new  vision  bursts  forth,  which  is 
the  vision  of  "things  which  eyes  saw  not,  and  ear  heard  not  and  which 
entered  not  into  the  heart  of  man."179  It  is  the  vision  of  spiritual 
ideal  which  blooms  into  richness  of  meaning  and  reality,  and  imperiously 
commands  reverence  and  respect, — a  sense  of  appreciation  of  this  vision 
of  the  invisible  reality.  It  cannot  be  experienced  unless  there  is  a 
sufficient  degree  of  social  maturity  to  warrant  such  a  process  of  valua- 

173  yye  ,j0  not  say  [ijese  religions  are  pseudo-religions;  they  are  true  religions  psychologically,  as  long 
as  they  exhibit  a  conduct  which  involves  and  is  conditioned  by  the  sense  of  deity.  See  Baldwin,  Op.  oil.. 
p.  366. 

179 1  Cor.  2:9. 


78  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

tion.180  The  very  young  child  may  sometimes  manifest  the  traits  of 
moral  consciousness  in  his  behavior,-  although  such  manifestations 
may  not  be  an  exact  index  of  the  consciousness  (they  are  often  the 
results  of  organic  adjustment),  but  he  can  never  be  religious  because 
of  the  evolutionary  limitations  set  by  the  immaturity  of  his  mental 
life.  The  appreciation  of  the  godlike  character  must  be  the  result  of 
the  thorough  understanding  of  human  character.  This  is  the  reason 
why  the  so-called  idea  of  God  often  entertained  by  children,  or  the 
interpretation  of  deity  held  by  primitive  people,  is  always  characterized 
by  a  gross  anthropomorphism.181  This  is  exactly  the  argument  in  favor 
of  the  order  of  development  here  advocated,  namely,  "from  morality 
to  religion."  In  other  words,  God  is  what  he  is  because  man  is  first 
what  he  is.  Even  in  the  civilized  community,  we  have  persons  who  are 
thoroughly  moral,  but  who  are  not  religious.182  Man  becomes  truly 
religious  only  after  he  is  truly  moral,  for  religion,  according  to  our 
analysis,  represents  a  higher  phase  of  the  superjective  stage  as  com- 
pared with  morality,  and  therefore  must  follow  rather  than  precede 
the  moral  consciousness,  merely  as  a  matter  of  genetic  necessity.183 
The  writer  of  the  first  Epistle  of  John  had  made  this  psychological 
distinction  clear  when  he  said,  "If  a  man  say,  I  love  God,  and  hateth 
his  brother,  he  is  a  liar;  for  he  that  loveth  not  his  brother  whom  he  hath 
seen,  cannot  love  God  whom  he  hath  not  seen."184  The  vision  of  God, 
then,  may  be  regarded  as  the  consummate  flower  of  the  social  con- 

180 The  statement  by  Hoffding  is  in  point  here:  "Values  must  be  discovered  and  produced  in  a  world 
of  experience  before  they  can  be  conceived  or  assumed  to  exist  in  a  higher  world.     The  other  world  must 

always  be  derived  from  this  world;  it  can  never  be  a  primary  concept The  content  of  religion 

always  points  back  to  life  in  the  world  of  experience,  and  without  a  knowledge  of  this,  life  would  be  incom- 
prehensible. Discussion  is  always  led  back  by  implacable  logic  to  the  conceptual  priority  of  ethics  over 
religion."     The  Philosophy  of  Religion,  p.  330. 

181Itisnot  our  contention  here  that  the  young  child  can  never  idealize.  In  fact,  some  children  are 
highly  idealistic  and  the  younger  children  are  merely  imaginative  while  the  older  ones  exercise  freely  the 
sense  of  hero-worship,  as  has  been  observed  by  Cooley  (Human  Nature  and  the  Social  Order).  Stratton 
says:  "The  cravings  and  appreciations  by  which  the  image  of  the  Perfect  receives  forms,  include  sensuous 
pleasure  and  the  love  of  action,  together  with  the  curiosity  for  causes,  the  need  of  logical  sufficiency,  the 
delight  in  beauty,  the  sense  of  the  importance  of  the  family,  of  larger  human  unions  and  the  lordship  and 
magistracy  which  accompany  these,  and  finally  of  the  golden  gifts  of  friendship."    Op  cit.,  p.  332. 

182  This  is  where  we  differ  from  Ames'  criterion  of  the  religious  person,  quoted  at  the  outset  of  this 
section. 

183  We,  therefore,  cannot  totally  agree  with  Calkins'  attitude  as  expressed  in  her  words:  "Any  con- 
scious relation  to  God,  however  low  and  lifeless,  however  destitute  of  moral  responsibility,  is    religion 

.     .     .     .     It  follows,  of  course,  that  a  bad  man  may  be  religious "     A  First  Book    in 

Psychology,  Rev.  Ed.,  1911,  p.  268. 

184 1  John  4:20. 


THEORETICAL  DEDUCTIONS  79 

sciousness — the  highest  stage  in  the  socialization  of  the  individual.185 
From  the  foregoing  discussion  it  seems  now  clear  that  both  moral 
and  religious  consciousness  may  be  viewed  as  belonging  to  the  idealistic 
or  superjective  stage  of  ontogenetic  development,  and  yet  a  psychological 
distinction  is  a  necessity  as  a  matter  of  theoretical  accuracy.  To  state 
in  terms  of  a  complete  social  process  what  has  already  been  said,  such  a 
distinction  between  the  two  phases  of  valuational  or  appreciative  con- 
sciousness lies  in  the  fact  that  the  moral  psychosis  is  a  form  of  the  social 
consciousness  as  it  relates  and  functions  itself  towards  one's  fellow  beings, 
while  the  religious  psychosis  is  that  which  reaches  out  into  a  still  higher, 
more  perfect  and  more  truly  ideal  Being,  which  though  not  an  unnatu- 
rally experiencable  objective  reality,  can  yet  become  a  spiritual  com- 
panion and  a  stimulating  object  of  worship  and  submission.  It  is  thus 
the  difference  in  the  object  of  the  social  consciousness  which  differenti- 
ates the  religious  from  the  moral.  In  the  one,  it  is  the  really  socialized 
person,  while  in  the  other  it  is  the  ideally  socialized  person. 

185  It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this  connection  the  psychological  significance  of  the  following  poem 
entitled  "God,"  written  by  a  young  and  comparatively  unknown  Japanese  poet,  Soma  Gyofu: 

"God?     Can  I  paint  that  which  I  cannot  see 

Nor  comprehend, — the  vaguely  Infinite, 

Beyond  all  human  ken,  or  word,  or  thought? 

Yet  from  the  known  we  figure  the  unknown, 

And  shadow  forth  the  shadowless;  and  thus, 

God  is  the  heart  that  loves, — the  lover's  heart, 

That  looks  and  yearns  for  sweet  return  of  love; 

The  husband's  heart,  that  makes  companionship 

With  her  whose  hand  he  holds  and  calls  his  own; 

The  father's  heart,  that  careth  for  his  son, 

Watching  his  growth  with  fond  paternal  pride. 

And  lovers,  parting,  ofttimes  interchange 

Twin  trinklets,  tokens  of  a  common  love, 

And  each  one,  gazing  on  the  thing  he  wears, 

'My  love,'  says  he,  'beyond  the  cold  gray  sea, 

Wears  the  twin  fellow  of  this  ring  I  wear, 

And,  gazing,  thinks  of  me  as  I  of  her: 

By  this  I  know  our  absent  love  holds  good.' 

Such  is  the  thing  that  men  have  christened  Faith." 
Translated  into  English  by  Arthur  Lloyd,  and  published  in  the  Open  Court,  Feb.,  1913,  p.  122. 


CHAPTER  V 

Practical  Deductions 
1 .    a  problem  in  christian  missions 

Of  all  the  departments  of  what  is  generally  known  as  Practical 
Theology,  the  subjects  which  concern  us  most  are  the  problems  of 
missionary  method  and  preparation  and  of  religious  education.  When 
we  glance  at  the  vast  amount  of  literature  on  Christian  missions,  we 
discover  various  standpoints  and  methods  of  approach  that  are  often 
radically  divergent.  Some  regard  the  missionary  enterprise  as  more 
or  less  of  a  revolutionary  affair,  starting  with  a  hostile  attitude  towards 
everything  pertaining  to  the  heathen  nations  and  with  only  one  simple 
goal  in  view,  namely,  of  establishing  a  particular  type  of  Christianity 
which  the  missionary  happens  to  cherish.  This  must  have  been  the 
case  when  a  writer  on  foreign  missions  expressed  his  attitude  in  the 
following  words: 

"Out  of  vanity,  ignorance,  and  despair  of  the  human  mind  in  its  proud  and  helpless 
struggle  after  some  satisfying  solution  of  the  problems  of  life  and  destiny,  have  come 
those  great  ethnic  religions  which,  by  virtue  of  the  distorted  and  mutilated  fragments 
of  truth  which  they  contain,  as  well  as  their  concession  to  weakness  and  sin,  have 

held  sway  for  long  centuries  over  so  many  millions  of  our  human  race 

They  are  the  corruptions  and  perversions  of  a  primitive,  monotheistic  faith  which  was 
directly  taught  by  God  to  the  early  progenitors  of  the  race.  They  are  not  even  after 
the  pattern  of  things  in  the  heavens,  much  less  the  heavenly  things  themselves.  They 
are  rather  gross  caricatures  and  fragmentary  semblances  of  the  true  religion,  which 
have  departed  so  far  from  the  original  model  as  to  be  in  many  essential  things  positive 
contradictions  and  reversals  of  the  truth."186 

The  believers  in  ethnic  religions  would  undoubtedly  be  provoked  and 
feel  greatly  insulted  at  reading  such  words  of  hostility  and  ridicule, 
and  doubt  at  once  if  such  a  writer  is  a  typical  Christian.  Another 
example  of  the  same  point  of  view,  only  in  more  stylish  and  oratorical 
language,  is  the  following  extract  from  a  speech  by  Sir  Monier  Williams, 
Boden  Professor  of  Sanskrit  at  Oxford: 

"These  non-Christian  Bibles  are  all  developments  in  the  wrong  direction.  They 
all  begin  with  some  flashes  of  light,  and  end  in  utter  darkness.  Pile  them,  if  you  will, 
on  the  left  hand  of  your  study  table,  but  place  your  own  Holy  Bible  on  the  right 

side — all  by  itself — and  with  a  wide  gap  between I  contend  that  the 

two  unparalleled  declarations  quoted  by  me  from  our  Holy  Bible  make  a  gulf  between 
it  and  the  so-called  sacred  books  of  the  East  which  severs  the  one  from  the  other 
utterly,  hopelessly,  and  forever;  not  a  mere  rift  which  may  be  easily  closed  up;  not 

186  J.  S.  Dennis:  Foreign  Missions  after  a  Century,  1903,  pp.  249-251.  Cf.  also  his  statement  in  the 
Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progress,   1897,  Vol.  II,  p.  5. 


PRACTICAL  DEDUCTIONS  81 

a  mere  rift  across  which  the  Christian  and  non-Christian  may  shake  hands  and  inter- 
change similar  ideas  in  regard  to  essential  truths,  but  a  veritable  gulf  which  cannot 
be  bridged  over  by  any  science  of  religious  thought;  yes,  a  bridgeless  chasm  which 
no  theory  of  evolution  can  ever  span.  Go  forth,  then,  ye  missionaries,  in  your  Mas- 
ter's name;  go  forth  into  all  the  world,  and  after  studying  all  its  false  religions  and 
philosophies,  go  forth  and  fearlessly  proclaim  to  suffering  humanity  the  plain,  the 

unchangeable,  the  eternal  facts  of  the  Gospel Be  fair,  be  charitable, 

be  Christian,  but  let  there  be  no  mistake;  let  it  be  made  absolutely  clear  that  Christi- 
anity cannot,  must  not,  be  watered  down  to  suit  the  palate  of  either  Hindu,  Parsee, 
Confucianist,  Buddhist,  or  Mohammedan,  and  that  whoever  washes  to  pass  from 
the  false  religion  to  the  true  can  never  hope  to  do  so  by  the  rickety  planks  of  com- 
promise,      "187 

It  would  be  almost  an  endless  task  to  quote  all  the  references  to  such  an 
obsolete  point  of  view,  for  we  are  likely  to  find  such  a  statement  almost 
anywhere  in  the  books  on  Christian  missions.  But  there  are  increas- 
ingly others  who  take  a  more  modern  and  scientific  standpoint,  as  may 
be  exemplified  in  the  words  of  a  recent  writer: 

"As  was  natural,  many  mistakes  in  the  nature  of  the  preaching  were  made  at 
first.  Even  when  the  difficulties,  in  many  cases  almost  insuperable,  of  the  language 
were  overcome,  the  missionary  would  be  sometimes  inclined  to  give  the  Gospel  message 
with  little  knowledge  or  sympathetic  understanding  of  the  religious  ideas  of  his  hearers, 
and  in  most  cases  he  imposed  upon  them  not  only  the  Christian  teachings,  but  the 
theology  and  the  ecclesiastical  ideas  which  had  grown  up  in  Europe  to  meet  the  needs 
of  European  thought  and  conditions.  Experience,  the  study  of  non-Christian  religions, 
the  deeper  understanding  of  missionary  problems,  has  led  by  degrees  to  more  enlight- 
ened methods At  the  same  time  it  is  recognized  that  amongst  almost 

every  people  there  exists  some  preparation  for  the  Gospel — that  is  everywhere  the 
spiritual  needs  of  the  human  soul  that  have  produced  the  religions  of  the  East  and  of 
the  Animist  peoples,  and  that  the  task  of  the  missionary  is  to  show  how  the  teaching 
that  he  brings  corresponds  to  those  needs,  and  includes  in  itself  what  is  true  and  per- 
manent in  the  religious  ideas  which  he  finds  amongst  his  hearers."188 

Such  a  more  enlightened  view,  however,  is  by  no  means  new  to  our  age. 
Jesus  himself  was  an  appreciative  student  of  Judaism,  and  consequently 
his  method  was  to  go  first  to  the  Jewish  teachings  and  his  conclusion 
was,  "I  came  not  to  destroy  but  to  fulfill."  There  are  a  number  of 
writers  who  follow  the  footsteps  of  Jesus  in  missionary  methods,  and 
they  signal  the  hope  of  the  future.189 

187  Quoted  by  E.  A.  Lawrence:  Modem  Missions  in  the  East;  Their  Methods,  Successes,  and  Limitations, 
1901,  pp.  159  f. 

188  Louise  Creighton:  Missions;  Their  Rise  and  Development,  1912,  (Home  University  Series,  No.  55), 
pp.  89  f. 

189  It  is  beyond  our  power  here  to  quote  extensively  from  these  writers.  The  most  prominent  of 
these  have  been  summarized  by  R.  E.  Speer:  Christianity  and  the  Nations,  1910,  pp.  239  ff.,  also  by  F.  L. 
Lombard:  mAm.  Jcurn.  of  Re!.  Psychol,  and  Educ,  Vol.  I,  pp.  115  fif. 


82  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

Amid  such  a  confusion  of  opinions  as  to  the  fundamental  attitude  of 
missionary  authors,  it  is  but  natural  to  find  the  practitioners  of  Christian 
missions  utterly  indifferent  to  the  problem  of  method.  They  have 
relied,  almost  excessively,  upon  their  own  personal  inclinations  in  this 
matter.  But  a  brighter  day  is  dawning.  Their  sole  conviction  that 
the  faith  in  God  was  all-sufficient  is  now  being  supplemented  by  another 
conclusion  that  the  knowledge  of  the  mission  field  and  the  scientific 
approach  in  method  are  absolutely  necessary.  This  is  especially  true  in 
the  case  of  the  work  in  Japan,  for,  as  has  been  noted,  the  apperceptive 
mass  of  the  people  is  unusually  complex  and  heterogeneous.  The  religion 
of  Jesus  must  be  given  to  the  people  not  as  a  disconnected  slice  of  experi- 
ence but  as  something  which  naturally  orients  itself  in  the  mental  con- 
stitution. The  mind  of  the  Japanese  cannot  be  made  a  tabula  rasa, 
after  having  built  for  itself  a  world  of  meaning  and  having  inherited 
a  civilization  of  its  own  from  time  immemorial.  A  successful  missionary 
offers  Christianity  to  the  people  in  a  way  that  admits  an  easy  and  natural 
entrance  into  the  world  of  concepts  already  in  existence.190  The  fact  that 
some  of  the  earlier  Christian  workers  in  Japan  have  failed  to  understand 
this  point  of  view  is  undoubtedly  responsible  for  the  slow  progress  of 
Christianity  in  Japan,  as  compared  with  the  advance  of  other  phases  of 
Western  thought.  Recently  this  aspect  of  the  problem  has  received 
psychological  consideration  in  the  hands  of  a  missionary  in  Japan,  and 
he  says,  in  one  of  his  conclusions,  that  "the  duty  of  a  religious  teacher  is 
(1)  to  discover  and  sympathetically  appreciate  the  experience  of  religion 
already  possessed;  (2)  to  develop  that  experience  along  lines  native  to 
it;  (3)  to  supplement  such  by  added  elements,  made  conformable; 
(4)  to  expect  and  welcome  a  new  growth,  characteristic  of  the  people."191 
Such  a  study  by  Lombard  is  an  important  and  helpful  attempt  for  any 
missionary  to  undertake.  Our  present  study  has  endeavored  to  dis- 
cover a  ground  upon  which  an  adequate  missionary  training  can  base 
its  principles  and  methods,  and  it  remains  for  us  now  to  turn  our  atten- 
tion to  this  aspect  of  the  subject. 

It  has  been  lately  contended  that  in  Japan  the  missionary  issue  is  no 
longer   between   Christianity   and    the   native   religions,   but   between 

190  A  mental  disturbance  has  occurred  in  some  instances  as  a  result  of  coming  in  touch  with  Christi- 
anity, as  Clement  says:  "We  are  thus  able  to  comprehend  clearly  the  kind  of  mental  pabulum,  intellectual 
nourishment  that  the  Japanese  mind  received,  particularly  during  the  period  of  seclusion  and  crystalliza- 
tion and  we  need  not  be  surprised  that,  when  Christian  doctrines  were  offered  as  food,  a  sort  of  mental 
nausea  was  produced."     Christianity  in  Modern  Japan,  p.  159. 

191 F.  L.  Lombard:  "Notes  upon  a  Study  in  the  Pedagogy  of  Missions,"  Am.  Journ.  of  Rel. 
Psychol.,  and  Educ,  Vol.  I,  pp.  113-128. 


PRACTICAL  DEDUCTIONS  83 

Christianity  and  nothing.192  This  nothing,  however,  must  be  interpreted 
to  mean  not  so  much  the  total  absence  of  any  belief  or  idea,  for  the 
educated  Japanese  have  often  so  many  ideas  and  beliefs  that  their 
attitude  towards  Christianity  is  characterized  by  hostility,  indifference 
or  prejudice.193  It  is  rather  to  be  understood  in  the  sense  of  being  in 
the  state  of  religious  instability.  Missionaries  will  err  greatly  if  they 
regard  the  so-called  atheists  and  agnostics  as  having  nothing  in  the  way 
of  religious  and  moral  ideas,  for  the  psychology  of  the  situation  implies 
a  real  longing  and  readiness  to  accept  whatever  faith  truly  satisfies 
their  spiritual  needs,  presented,  however,  in  the  moral  and  religious 
vocabulary  of  their  own.194  To  a  careful  student  of  the  ethnic  religions 
and  of  the  moral  needs  of  Japan,  the  field  seems  to  be  a  comparatively 
fruitful  one  for  missionary  enterprise.195  Undoubtedly  there  are  appar- 
ently many  ideas  in  Japan  that  are  directly  antagonistic  to  the  teachings 
of  Christianity,  and  yet  these  very  ideas  indicate  a  certain  level  of  con- 

192 This  "is  the  inference  that  must  be  drawn  from  the  figures  of  a  religious  census  recently  taken  in 
the  Imperial  University  of  Tokyo.  It  classifies  more  than  4,000  students  by  religions  as  follows:  Shinto  8, 
Buddhist  50,  Christians  60,  atheist  1,500  and  agnostic  3,000.  It  appears  from  this  that  the  educated 
classes  of  Japan  have  practically  broken  with  the  old  beliefs  and  are  searching  for  some  better  basis  for 
ethics  and  faith."  Bib.  World,  Vol.  XLI,  (1913),  pp.  128.  The  figures  have  been  revised  more  recently. 
See  an  address  by  the  writer  "Japanese  Students  and  Christianity,"  in  the  report  of  the  Kansas  City 
Convention,  1914,  Students  and  the  World-Wide  Expansion  of  Christianity,  p.  53. 

193  Cf.  E.  W.  Clement:  Christianity  in  Modern  Japan,  p.  162. 

194  Count  Okuma  says:  "The  nation  may,  perhaps,  be  characterized,  in  a  word,  as  guileless  or  as 
spiritually  clean.  It  can  be  well  understood  that  the  contact  of  a  national  mind  so  attuned,  with  the 
Occident's  civilization,  acted  like  the  introduction  of  a  beautiful  pigment  into  clear  water  contained  in  a 
crystalline  vessel,  the  brilliant  color  instantly  suffusing  the  entire  volume  of  water."  Fifty  Years  of  New 
Japan,  Vol.  I,  p.  10.  One  of  the  native  Christian  teachers  makes  the  following  exegesis  on  some  Scriptural 
passage:  "The  life  of  Christ  is  an  example  of  the  victory  of  giri  (sense  of  duty)  over  ninjo  (natural  feeling). 
The  temptations  of  Satan  were  all  directed  toward  the  natural  feeling  of  Christ  as  a  man;  but  Christ,  dis- 
cerning clearly  what  duty  demanded,  overcame  them.  Again,  when  Christ  prayed,  'O  my  father,  if  it 
be  possible  let  this  cup  pass  from  me,'  he  gave  expression  to  his  natural  feelings;  but  when  he  added,  'Never- 
theless not  as  I  will  but  as  thou  wilt,'  he  conquered  them  by  his  sense  of  duty.  This  is  an  explanation, 
which,  I  think,  is  readily  understood  by  the  Japanese."  Rev.  T.  Harada,  quoted  by  W.  E.  GrifEs:  Dux 
Christus,  p.  191. 

195  The  Bishop  of  Exeter  has  the  following  testimony:  "  If  you  had  been  asked  to  sketch  an  ideal  land, 
most  suitable  for  Christian  Missions,  and  when  itself  Christianized  more  suited  for  evangelistic  work 
among  the  nations  of  the  Far  East,  what,  I  ask,  would  be  the  special  characteristics  of  the  land  and  people 
that  you  would  have  desired?  Perhaps,  first,  as  Englishmen  or  Irishmen,  you  would  have  said,  'Give  us 
islands,  inseparably  and  forever  united,  give  us  islands  which  can  hold  their  sea-girt  independence,  and  yet 
near  enough  to  the  mainland  to  exert  influence  there.'  Such  is  Japan — the  land  of  the  Rising  Sun.  'Give 
us  a  hardy  race,  not  untrained  in  war  by  land  and  sea;  for  a  nation  of  soldiers,  when  won  for  Christ, 
fights  best  under  the  banner  of  the  Cross — for  we  are  of  the  Church  militant  here  on  earth;  give  us  brave 

men';  and  such  are  the  descendants  of  the  old  Daimios  and  two-sworded  Samurai  of  Japan 

'But,'  you  would  also  have  said,  'give  us  a  race  whose  women  are  homespun  and  refined,  courteous  and  win 
some,  not  tottering  on  tortured  feet,  nor  immured  in  zenanas  and  harems,  but  who  freely  mingle  in  social 
life,  and  adorn  all  they  touch,'  and  such,  without  controversy,  are  the  women  of  Japan.  Above  all,  'give 
us  a  reverent  and  a  religious  people,  who  yet  are  conscious  that  the  religion  of  their  fathers  is  unsatisfying 
and  unreal,  and  who  are  therefore  ready  to  welcome  the  Christ  of  God,'  and  such  are  the  thoughtful  races 
of  Japan."     Quoted  by  W.  E.  GrifEs:  Op.  tit.,  pp.  187  f. 


84  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

sciousness  and  to  a  missionary  of  insight  they  are  the  stepping-stones 
to  higher  development  rather  than  a  total  hindrance  to  such  a  growth. 
The  psychological  study  of  the  religious  experience  of  a  group  of  arbi- 
trarily selected  Japanese  converts  has  enabled  us  to  find  at  least  a  partial 
explanation  of  this  comparative  productivity  as  a  mission  field  in  the  fact 
that  they  had  been  reared  in  the  atmosphere  of  ethnic  religions  with 
their  characteristic  forms  of  civilization,  though  sometimes  unaccented 
and  often  ill-defined.  We  can  not  go  into  the  details  of  the  specific 
points  of  contact  between  the  religions  of  Japan  and  that  of  Jesus  Christ ; 
such  a  study  has  already  been  attempted  by  abler  hands.  The  one 
fundamental  point  which  is  here  repeatedly  emphasized  as  a  conclusion 
of  our  study  is  that  there  can  be  no  impassable  chasm  between  the  ethnic 
religions  of  Japan  and  the  Christian  religion,  and  that  the  method  of 
missionary  procedure  must  be  derived  from  this  essential  principle.196 
With  this  fundamental  principle  in  mind,  our  next  query  is  with 
reference  to  the  essential  subjects  of  study  which  ought  to  enter  into  the 
curriculum  of  missionary  training.  The  World  Missionary  Conference 
of  1910  which  met  at  Edinburgh  gave  a  prolonged  consideration  to 
this  matter.197  A  special  Commission  on  this  subject  generalized  the 
courses  of  study  under  five  headings,  based  upon  the  questionnaire 
returns  from  the  missionaries  actually  in  the  field:  (1)  The  science  and 
history  of  missions,  (2)  The  study  of  the  religions  of  the  world,  (3)  The 
study  of  sociology,  (4)  Pedagogy  and  (5)  The  study  of  languages. 
While  this  generalization  was  the  composite  opinion  of  the  missionaries 
who  probably  have  not  had  such  a  system  of  training  themselves,  the 
general  conclusion  of  the  Commission  after  actually  studying  the  present 
situation  in  missionary  training  was  expressed  in  some  such  phrase 

as  this:  " candidates  for  ordained  work  in   the  foreign 

field  receive  very  little  special  instruction  in  missionary  subjects  in  the 
course  of  their  theological  curriculum,  whether  that  curriculum  is  long 
or  short."198    As  an  attempt  to  overcome  this  defect,  the  Board  of 

196 G.  Stanley  Hall  has  a  remarkable  passage  on  this  point:  "If  Christianity  is  ultimate  and  is  fit 
to  be  a  universal  religion,  it  must  be  shown  to  be  related  to  Buddhism,  Brahmanism.  Confucianism,  and 
other  and  perhaps  all  indigenous  religions  somewhat  as  it  is  to  Judaism.  It  must  be  shown  to  be  prefigured, 
anticipated  in  each,  and  each  must  be  shown  to  be  fulfilled  in  it  in  analogous  ways.  Those  who  proclaim 
it  must  be  as  sympathetic  and  as  instructed  in  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  native  faith  as  Jesus  was  in  that  of 
Hebraism,  and  have  served  an  apprenticeship  like  his  to  it."  Adolescence,  Vol.  II,  pp.  745 f.  For  the 
expression  of  the  same  fact  on  the  part  of  the  Japanese  Christians,  see  the  case  of  K.  Yamamoto  as  reported 
by  DeForest:  Sunrise  in  the  Sunrise  Kingdom,  (rev.  ed.),  p.  171;  also  D.  Ebina:  "The  Evangelization  of 
Japan,"  Harvard  Theol.  Rev.,  Vol.  II,  p.  197. 

197  World  Missionary  Conference,  Vol.  V. 

198  Ibid.,  p.  78. 


PRACTICAL  DEDUCTIONS  85 

Missionary  Preparation  was  appointed  by  the  Federation  of  Mission 
Boards,  immediately  after  the  Edinburgh  Conference.  This  Board 
has  a  special  Commission  on  Japan,  which,  according  to  the  report  of 
the  Board,  is  preparing  a  special  report  on  the  training  needed  for  mis- 
sionaries appointed  to  Japan.  On  examining  the  tentative  statements 
of  this  Commission,  we  are  struck  by  their  unusual  insight  into  the 
conditions  of  Japan  as  a  missionary  field.  It  is  neither  our  purpose 
here  to  review  nor  our  desire  to  criticise  the  report  in  question.  While 
in  some  minor  matters,  criticisms  are  inevitable,  on  the  whole  the  vision 
of  the  Commission  is  commendable.  This,  we  must  remember,  however, 
is  only  a  vision  and  not  yet  a  reality. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  the  present  thesis  to  elaborate  in  detail  the 
various  materials  which  ought  to  constitute  the  curriculum  of  an  ideal 
missionary  training  school,  for  such  a  task  is  attempted  by  the  Board  of 
Missionary  Preparation  above  referred  to.  Here  we  are  to  give  three 
outstanding  aspects  which  ought  to  guide  the  formulation  of  a  mis- 
sionary training  curriculum.  (1)  The  first  is  what  we  may  call  emotional 
preparation.  It  consists  essentially  in  the  true  appreciation  of  Christi- 
anity in  its  practical  life  and  in  the  genuine  enthusiasm  for  evangelization. 
These  two  aspects  of  the  emotional  preparation  are  fundamental  and 
primary.  This  means  that  a  mere  intellectual  training  cannot  give 
such  an  emotional  content  to  the  religious  life  of  a  missionary.  He  must 
experience  that  life  himself  in  order  to  show  others  what  it  is.  In  this 
respect,  James'  theory  of  emotion  does  not  hold  good,  for  a  physical 
and  outward  representation  of  Christianity  will  not  produce  a  genuine 
Christian  experience.  It  ought  to  come  from  other  sources.  (2)  But 
the  sole  emphasis  upon  this  aspect  has  misled  many  an  able  missionary, 
for  it  caused  them  to  neglect  the  second  important  item  which  may  be 
called  intellectual  preparation.  Under  this  group  come  such  subjects 
as  comparative  religion,  history  and  science  of  missions,  the  study  of  the 
Bible,  sociology  of  the  mission  field,  etc.  But  in  studying  all  these 
important  subjects,  a  missionary  ought  to  have  a  psychological  view- 
point. The  common  defect  of  the  missionary  training  curricula  is  that 
they  are  too  mechanical  and  merely  descriptive.  The  mere  knowledge 
of  disconnected  items  of  ethnic  experience  will  not  remain  very  long 
in  the  brain  of  a  missionary,  but  if  he  acquires  such  a  knowledge  with  a 
psychological  interpretation,  that  will  function  dynamically  in  the  con- 
duct of  his  work.  In  other  words,  what  needs  to  be  emphasized  in 
missionary  training  is  an  intelligent  correlation  of  the  subjects  of  study, 


86  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

and  this  can  best  be  accomplished  by  basing  the  interpretation  upon 
the  principles  of  modern  functional  psychology.  (3)  This  leads  to  the 
third  aspect,  namely,  volitional  preparation.  Here  comes  the  question 
of  method,  whether  evangelistic  or  educational.  The  study  of  the 
principles  of  religious  education  and  the  modern  methods  of  evangelism 
are  in  point.  Very  few  missionaries  are  prepared  in  this  aspect,  and  the 
result  is  that  their  good  will  and  enthusiasm  are  wasted.  Very  fre- 
quently the  lack  of  preparation  causes  disturbance  in  social  relations 
between  the  missionary  and  the  natives.  The  fact  that  many  Japanese 
Christians  are  bitterly  against  foreign  missionaries  is  directly  traceable 
to  the  defect  here  referred  to.  Again,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the 
Christian  church  where  missionary  supremacy  is  upheld  is  almost  always 
weak  and  inefficient,  whereas  the  church  controlled  and  managed  by  the 
Japanese  themselves  is  usually  strong  and  efficient.  All  these  facts  go 
to  prove  that  missionaries  are  really  ignorant  of  their  place  in  the  evan- 
gelization of  Japan,  but  the  more  intelligent  way  of  interpretation  is 
that  they  lack  this  fundamental  training  in  method  of  evangelism  and 
education.  It  is  usually  contended  that  here  comes  in  the  question  of 
tact  but  tact  as  such  never  exists.  It  is  neither  an  inspiration  nor  a 
genius;  it  is  a  volitional  construct,  based  on  the  sound  knowledge  of  the 
problem  and  an  intelligent  reaction  to  the  situation.  Proper  training  will 
produce  such  a  quality. 

The  above  consideration  of  the  general  deficiency  in  missionary  train- 
ing leads  us  to  the  very  important  problem  of  the  standard  of  missionary 
selection.  Many  Japanese  natives  discover  some  missionaries  to  be 
disagreeable  and  ill-fitted  for  the  field.  These  missionaries  may  do 
better  in  some  other  fields.  The  fault  lies  in  this  case  in  the  Mission 
Board  and  not  in  the  individual  missionaries.  It  frequently  happens 
that  the  Board  appoints  a  missionary  contrary  to  the  wish  of  the  candi- 
date, with  the  result  that  his  work  becomes  comparatively  inefficient. 
The  appointment  of  a  missionary  by  the  Board  then  is  a  more  com- 
plicated problem  than  is  usually  conceived.  Again  the  matter  of  test 
or  examination  has  to  be  reconsidered  by  the  Board.  The  usual  requi- 
sites of  training,  Christian  character,  personal  interview,  etc.,  ought 
to  be  supplemented  by  all  means  by  a  social  test.  This  will  necessitate 
for  all  missionaries  some  time  spent  in  the  home  field  before  going  to 
the  foreign  land,  for  this  will  give  a  chance  to  test  them  with  reference 
to  general  efficiency.  The  alleged  fear  on  the  part  of  some  Boards 
that  if  such  a  test  is  practised,  the  candidates  would  be  lured  to  remain 


PRACTICAL  DEDUCTIONS  87 

here  and  lose  sight  of  the  foreign  work,  is  more  a  petty  sentiment  than 
a  sound  reason.  The  matter  of  age  does  not  cut  a  great  figure.  The 
general  problem  of  selection  then  will  require  an  expert  scrutiny  both  of 
the  outgoing  missionaries  and  the  missionaries  who  are  already  in  the 
field.  It  will  be  necessary  in  some  cases  to  recall  those  missionaries 
who  are  obsolete. 

The  above  suggestions  as  to  the  psychological  qualification  of  a 
missionary  and  the  problem  of  missionary  selection  are  based  on  personal 
observation  in  the  light  of  the  investigation  of  the  present  thesis.  The 
general  emphasis  of  this  entire  section  has  been  to  point  out  the  need 
of  the  presence  of  missionaries  in  Japan,  and  to  plead  for  a  more  thorough 
and  appropriate  preparation  as  well  as  for  the  proper  selection  of  the 
prospective  missionaries.  The  present  thesis  does  not  undertake  to 
discuss  these  matters  in  detail,  but  merely  suggests  the  fundamental 
psychological  point  of  view.199  It  remains  for  the  Board  of  Missionary 
Preparation  to  elaborate  their  details. 

2.      RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  OF  THE  JAPANESE 

The  intellectual  correlate  of  evangelism  is  the  educational  endeavor. 
Religious  education  arose  as  a  counterpart  of  the  revivalistic  procedure, 
because  of  its  more  permanent  and  normal  effect  upon  the  religious 
development  of  the  converts.  Its  fundamental  assumption  is  that  the 
individual  should  be  encouraged  to  build  up  the  religious  consciousness 
by  means  of  ideational  and  cognitive  processes  and  pursue  a  gradual 
course  of  maturity  rather  than  to  experience  an  abrupt  change  of  interests 
and  ends  in  the  emotional  life.  The  present  investigation  has  amply 
demonstrated  the  truth  that  educational  influence  has  played  a  great 
part  in  converting  our  subjects.  The  rarer  cases  of  sudden  conversion 
among  the  Japanese  who  have  been  educated  in  the  morals  and  religious 
principles  of  the  ethnic  religions  mean  not  an  unnatural  turning  of 
direction  in  the  life  process,  but  rather  an  experience  which  adds  richness 
of  meaning  to  the  social  consciousness  that  had  already  been  built. 
Suddenness  in  such  cases,  therefore,  has  a  different  content  than  is 
usually  understood.  This  being  the  conclusion,  what  can  this  con- 
tribute to  the  religious  education  of  the  Japanese? 

Religious  education,  whether  in  Japan  or  elsewhere,  is  a  much  simpler 
problem  than  evangelism,  for  its  point  of  departure  is  the  child  who  is 

199  Since  writing  this  section,  two  interesting  studies  have  been  published,  viz.,  J.  H.  Stontemyer: 
"Religion  and  Race-Education,"  Journ.  of  Rel.  Psychol.,  Vol.  VII,  pp.  273-324;  McLeod  Harvey:  "The 
Pedagogy  of  Missions,"  Ibid.,  pp.  345-399.  James  L.  Barton's  article  entitled  "The  Modern  Missionary," 
Harvard.  Theol.  Rev.,  Vol.  VIII,  pp.  1-17,  signals  the  future  attitude  and  policy  of  the  Mission  Boards. 


88  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

more  or  less  free  from  the  racial  habits  which  often  stand  in  the  way  of 
Christian  development,  and  this  fact  reduces  the  apperceptive  mass  to 
its  minimum  complexity.  Although  there  may  be  some  racial  traits 
in  the  Japanese  children,  yet  the  social  environment  can  easily  counter- 
act the  transient  ethnic  instincts.  It  is  undoubtedly  impossible  to 
transform  the  social  environment  completely.  The  introduction  of  the 
Christian  religion  has  already  wrought  a  remarkable  change  in  Japanese 
society,  and  the  aim  of  religious  education  is  to  reorganize  the  envi- 
ronmental forces  so  as  to  favor  the  development  of  Christian  personality. 
Any  such  attempt,  however,  to  mould  and  reconstruct  a  nation's  social 
order  must  be  intelligently  guided  by  rational  principles  based  on  the 
nature  of  educational  influences  already  in  existence. 

Of  all  the  educational  agencies  which  contribute  to  the  moral 
and  religious  education  of  the  Japanese,  the  most  important  one  is  the 
home.  As  soon  as  the  little  child  can  talk,  he  is  trained  in  various 
manners  and  etiquettes  which  build  the  foundation  of  character.  The 
psychology  of  the  teaching  of  manners  and  etiquettes  is  that  it  illustrates 
the  social  nature  of  development  in  general.  The  child  is  taught  in 
this  way  the  lesson  of  obedience  in  its  na'ive  form  by  following  the  cus- 
toms of  the  home  and  of  society,  by  making  the  child  sensitive 
to  the  opinion  of  others,  and  by  introducing  the  peculiar  social  situation 
in  which  alone  etiquette  and  manners  take  meaning.  It,  therefore, 
forms  the  very  foundation  of  social  and  moral  development. 

Another  important  element  in  home  education  is  found  in  the  lullabies 
and  folk-tales  that  are  given  to  the  child  from  early  infancy.  The 
quaint  and  yet  exquisitely  charming  lullabies  that  are  chanted  to  lull 
the  little  one  to  sleep  afford  a  significant  material  for  social  development. 
The  rich  and  fascinating  fairy  tales  are  also  powerful  in  bringing  home 
to  the  child  a  sense  of  respect,  adoration  and  other  humane  virtues, 
and  the  child  usually  takes  a  deep  interest  in  listening  to  these  stories 
as  they  are  told  by  his  parents  or  grandparents.200  The  majority  of 
these  tales  are  merely  fictitious  and  contain  no  definitely  moral  or 
religious  sentiments,  but  their  highly  imaginative  character  engenders 
a  sense  of  appreciation  of  the  heroic  qualities  of  the  component  personnae. 
Some,  however,  are  designed  to  emphasize  specific  religious  habits  and 
practices  of  olden  days  and  their  effect  upon  the  religious  development 

200  The  most  popular  of  these  tales  is  that  of  "Little  Peachling,"  the  full  account  of  which  is  found 
in  Baron  Kikuchi:  Japanese  Education,  pp.  383  f. 


PRACTICAL  DEDUCTIONS  89 

of  the  child  is  often  remarkable.201  One  of  our  subjects,  K.  Y.,  remem- 
bered the  Buddhist  allegory  that  had  formed  a  part  of  his  tale-educa- 
tion.202 

As  to  the  more  expressly  religious  education  of  the  Japanese  child 
in  the  home  it  may  be  said  that  a  practice  called  "Miya-mairi,"  or 
visit  to  the  temple,  ushers  in  the  whole  curriculum  which  is  to  follow. 
It  roughly  corresponds  to  Western  christening.  It  occurs  on  the  thirty- 
first  day  after  the  birth  in  the  case  of  a  boy,  and  on  the  thirty-third 
day  in  the  case  of  a  girl.  It  consists  in  taking  the  child  to  the  temple 
and  in  placing  it  under  the  guardianship  of  a  special  deity  selected  by 
the  parents.  The  frequent  religious  festivities  too  cannot  fail  to  con- 
tribute something  at  least  toward  the  religious  growth  of  the  child. 
Almost  every  community  has  its  own  representative  shrines,  temples  or 
other  sacred  places,  and  these  usually  form  spacious  playgrounds  for 
the  children  of  the  common  people,  where  various  forms  of  festive 
performance  take  place.  These  festivities  are  of  nation-wide  interest 
and  especially  are  they  alluring  to  young  children.  The  psychological 
significance  of  these  religious  festivities  is  not  difficult  to  see.  They  do 
not  appeal  to  the  child  as  religiously  important  incidents,  but  as  an  act 
in  which  the  entire  community  participates.  These  are  the  occasions 
when  every  child  in  the  community  joins  in  the  processions  and  other 
forms  of  social  activities  that  constitute  the  essential  counterparts 
of  these  festivities.  Here  also  must  be  included  all  sorts  of  games  that 
are  indulged  in  by  Japanese  children.  These  are  important  not  as 
religious  practices  as  such  but  as  social  activities  that  are  decidedly 
educative. 

Still  another  element  in  home  education  is  the  training  of  the  young  in 
the  habit  of  respecting  and  obeying  the  elders  and  the  superiors.  This 
is  the  psychological  background  of  ancestor-worship  and  the  loyalty 
to  the  Emperor.  While  some  of  the  habits  are  often  grotesque  from  a 
rational  point  of  view,  the  spirit  that  is  fostered  by  such  acts  of  reverence 
is  an  important  asset  for  the  social  development  of  the  child.  They  are 
relevant  as  a  means  of  cultivating  a  truly  social  person.203 

As  to  the  moral  instruction  in  schools,  which  every  Japanese  child 
must  go  through,  it  is  impossible  as  well  as  irrelevant  here  to  go  into  a  full 

201  Seee.  g.,  M.  F.  Nixon-Roulet:  Japanese  Folk  Stories  and  Fairy  Talcs,  1908;  K.  Iwaya:  Fairy  Tales; 
A.  B.  Mitford:  Tales  of  Old  Japan,  1876;  G.  James:  Green  Willow,  and  Oilier  Japanese  Fairy  Tales,  1912; 
F.  H.  Davis:  Myths  and  Legends  of  Japan,  1912,  W.  E.  Griffis:   Thi  Mikado's  Empire,  Vol.  II,  Ch.  XIII. 

202  See  supra  p.  25. 

203  On  the  subject  of  horr.e  education,  all  standard  works  on  Japan  and  education  may  be  referred  to. 


90  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

discussion.204  As  an  elaborate  system  of  moral  education,  it  has  no 
parallel  anywhere.  Recently,  however,  the  entire  system  is  being 
subjected  to  a  severe  scrutiny  from  a  Christian  point  of  view.  According 
to  the  report  of  Galen  M.  Fisher,  the  students  whom  he  had  interviewed 
with  regard  to  the  effect  of  school  instruction  in  morals,  agreed  without 
exception  that  the  "textbooks  are  lacking  in  interest  and  in  power 
to  prick  the  conscience  and  the  imagination.  Their  verdict  regarding 
their  teachers  is  almost  as  unfavorable."205  But  it  is  gratifying  to  note 
at  least  an  endeavor  on  the  part  of  the  more  successful  teachers  of  morals 
to  appeal  to  the  sense  of  hero-worship  of  the  first  and  second  year 
pupils.206  Now  and  then,  attempts  are  also  being  made  in  some  of  the 
government  schools  to  introduce  the  teaching  of  morals  from  a  Christian 
point  of  view.  The  formal  teaching  of  religion  as  such  in  the  public 
schools  of  Japan  is  strictly  prohibited.  It  is  true  that  there  are  chairs 
in  the  history  of  religions  in  the  universities,  but  the  courses  are  chiefly 
historical  and  comparative.  By  some  seriously  minded  teachers  of 
religion,  this  condition  is  felt  to  be  a  sad  defect,  and  at  least  an  attempt 
was  made  by  a  teacher  to  find  relief  for  this  shortcoming.     Concerning 

this,  Thwing  says: 

"The  author  of  it  is  Professor  Tanamoto,  professor  of  pedagogy  in  the  University 
of  Kyoto.  Professor  Tanamoto's  method  includes  these  elements:  observation  of  and 
communication  with  nature,  reading  of  the  holy  scriptures  as  found  in  many  litera- 
tures, including  of  course  the  New  Testament,  the  telling  of  stories  regarding  religious 
duty  and  devotion,  and  prayer.  In  these  elements  and  exercises,  he  believes,  all 
children  and  their  teachers  of  whatever  denominational  faith,  can  unite.  Prayer 
would  be  an  act,  or  mood,  or  petition,  addressed  to  the  Being  whom  the  petitioner 
regards  as  Supreme."207 

The  attempt,  however,  is  not  a  successful  one,  for  as  Thwing  rightly 
comments,  "it  lacks  the  inspiration  of  personality  and  the  force  of 
definite  conception  of  truth." 

In  view  of  this  situation,  we  must  turn  naturally  to  the  more  con- 
sciously directed  efforts  in  religious  education.     At  present,  religious 

204  See  Baron  Kikuchi:  Op.  cit.,  Chs.  XI  and  XVI.  Cf.  also  G.  Spiller:  Report  on  Moral  Instruction 
and  on  Moral  Training  in  Eighteen  Countries,  London,  1909,  pp.  267  ff. 

206  "Notes  on  Moral  and  Religious  Influence  Surrounding  Younger  Students  in  Japan,"  Christian 
Movement  in  Japan,  VII  (1909),  p.  64.  The  more  enlightened  educators  are  beginning  to  realize  the 
futility  of  merely  passive  moral  education,  and  a  scheme  is  devised  to  awaken  the  moral  consciousness 
of  the  pupils  by  using  the  biographies  of  some  famous  men.  Cf.  K.  Yoshida:  "Notes  on  Methods  of 
Moral  Instruction  in  Japan,"  in  Moral  Instruction  and  Training  in  Schools,  edited  by  M.  E.  Sadler, 
1908,  Vol.  II,  pp.  346  f. 

206  This  is  done  by  Professor  Shinji  Sasakura  of  Sendai.  The  characters  used  for  the  textbook  are 
all  Japanese  heroes,  each  of  whom  represents  a  type  of  character  to  be  emphasized  and  learned.  See 
article  by  G.  M.  Fisher,  Loc.  cit.,  pp.  63,  65. 

207  C.  F.  Thwing:  Education  in  the  Far  East,  p.  98. 


PRACTICAL  DEDUCTIONS  91 

education  in  Japan  is  openly  carried  out  at  least  in  three  forms  of  insti- 
tutions: the  kindergarten,  largely  established  and  maintained  by  various 
Mission  Boards,  the  Sunday  School  and  the  so-called  mission  school. 
Both  Protestant  and  Catholic  Missions  are  conducting  these  institutions, 
and  the  last  statistics208  showed  the  total  number  of  all  these  schools 
but  the  Sunday  School,  to  be  244,  with  an  enrollment  of  perhaps  more 
than  22,500  students  of  both  sexes.  In  all  Protestant  churches,  there 
are  over  1,500  Sunday  Schools  and  100,000  scholars  in  all.209  The 
figure  is  very  small  when  we  compare  it  with  the  enrollment  in  non- 
Christian  schools  where  no  religious  instruction  is  given.  The  one 
great  defect  of  the  Christian  schools  is  that  they  have  not  succeeded 
in  securing  well  trained  teachers  in  religious  education.  The  short- 
coming of  the  Sunday  School  in  this  matter  is  perhaps  greater,  for  here 
in  this  institution  we  have  a  mass  of  volunteer  teachers  who  are  well 
meaning  but  poorly  qualified  to  undertake  the  important  task  of  impart- 
ing the  knowledge  of  Christianity  to  Japanese  children.210  But  the 
leaders  who  are  engaged  directly  in  the  religious  education  of  the  Japa- 
nese have  now  awakened  to  the  consciousness  that  definite  steps  towards 
the  scientific  solution  of  the  problem  must  be  taken  in  order  to  cope  with 
the  increasing  demand  of  the  idea  of  efficiency.  The  concrete  mani- 
festation of  this  consciousness  is  found  in  the  organization  of  the  National 
Sunday  School  Association  of  Japan  on  January  5,  1907,  as  the  result 
of  the  visit  to  Japan  of  Mr.  Frank  L.  Brown  and  of  the  generous  help 
of  Mr.  H.  J.  Heinz.  Following  the  organization  of  the  Association, 
various  phases  of  its  activities  were  actually  demonstrated,  the  more 
important  of  which  were  the  work  of  the  Sunday  School  Institute  and 
that  of  the  Sunday  School  exhibits.  The  Lesson  Committee  has  planned 
for  the  three  series  of  lessons  which  came  into  effect  after  July  1,  1907  ;211 
a  teachers'  magazine  and  a  series  of  practical  leaflets  are  being  published 

208  Christian  Movement  in  Japan,  1913,  pp.  718  ff. 

203  World-Wide  Sunday  School  Work,  Report  of  the  World's  Seventh  Sunday  School  Convention, 
1913,  p.  239. 

210  The  defect  of  the  Sunday  School  education  is  now  being  pointed  out  by  the  educational  experts, 
perhaps  more  vigorously  than  ever  before.  As  to  such  important  problems  as  the  selection  and  train- 
ing of  teachers,  practice  in  teaching  methods,  the  relation  of  the  Sunday  School  to  the  public  school,  the 
study  of  child  psychology,  school  hygiene,  etc.,  no  systematic  endeavor  has  been  made  to  place  religious 
education  on  a  firm  scientific  basis.  These  problems  become  all  the  more  important  in  view  of  the  increasing 
number  of  young  children  in  recent  years.  It  is  reported  that  at  a  city  Sunday  School  convention  held  in 
Tokyo,  over  10.000  children  had  gathered  for  class  instruction, — a  fact  absolutely  unprecedented  either 
in  the  Sunday  School  or  the  public  school  history.  See  the  editorial  in  a  Japanese  religious  monthly,  Shin- 
Jin,  edited  by  Rev.  D.  Ebina,  Feb.,  1913,  pp.  4  f. 

211  They  have  since  prepared  and  published  the  graded  lessons  for  eleven  years  of  study.  Rev.  H. 
Kozaki,  president  of  the  National  Association,  pleads  for  graded  lessons  very  strongly  for  good  reasons. 
See  his  statements  in  World-Wide  Sunday  School  Work  above  referred  to,  pp.  239  and  584. 


92  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

and  a  score  of  useful  books  of  reference  are  now  being  translated.  The 
Educational  Committee  is  arranging  a  training  course  for  Sunday  School 
teachers;  a  number  of  workers'  circulating  libraries  and  a  variety  of 
modern  pedagogical  methods  are  in  operation.212 

The  work  of  the  kindergartens  is  very  hopeful.  It  is  in  this  field 
that  all  educational  endeavors  find  their  common  meeting  place  and 
their  common  point  of  departure.  The  scientific  attitude  is  shown  in 
the  establishment  of  some  important  training  schools  for  teachers. 
"The  organization  of  the  Kindergarten  Union  of  Japan  in  1906  has 
brought  forty-three  Christian  kindergartens  in  closer  touch  with  each 
other  for  mutual  help,  inspiration  and  the  extension  of  the  work."  A 
prominent  kindergarten  worker  says: 

"The  Japanese  have  several  societies  for  their  kindergartens,  which  are  most 
enthusiastically  supported,  also  several  magazines  devoted  to  the  cause.  The  pro- 
fessors have  lately  given  themselves  to  the  study  of  stories  for  children;  kindergarten 
material  is  manufactured  in  Japan;  and  while  all  this  is  not  yet  beyond  the  pale  of 
criticism,  still  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  children's  hour  is  striking."213 

Certainly  a  good  beginning  in  religious  education  has  been  made,  and 
in  process  of  time,  we  can  expect  that  those  who  are  directly  connected 
with  the  task  of  Christian  education  in  Japan  may  bring  forth  results 
of  their  investigations  guided  by  practical  experience  and  scientific 
principle  and  produce  an  efficient  system  of  religious  education  for  the 
Japanese. 

In  concluding  this  section,  we  may  well  inquire,  "What  does  our 
study  contribute  to  the  principles  of  religious  education?''  One  pre- 
eminent result  is  that  the  materials  found  in  the  ethnic  religions  and 
morality  have  a  peculiarly  significant  element  for  Christian  religious 
education.  The  examination  of  our  converts  has  convinced  us  that  the 
religious  training  during  early  infancy  given  by  the  parents  was  the  most 
powerful  agency  in  calling  out  the  child's  religious  response.  The  school 
education  in  morals  seems  to  have  little,  if  any,  influence  in  awakening 
the  moral  consciousness  of  the  child.  Both  the  home  and  the  school, 
however,  are  important  in  the  social  development  of  the  young.  They 
both  have  to  deal  with  the  universe  of  relations,  which  includes  the  rela- 
tion between  the  elder  and  the  younger,  the  relation  between  the  members 
and  the  family,  and  the  relation  between  various  individuals.  The 
home  and  the  school,  then,  must  be  utilized  in  religious  education  for 

212  For  a  fuller  account  of  the  work  of  the  National  Sunday  School  Association  of  Japan,  consult 
The  Sunday  Schools  the  World  Around,  1907,  pp.   275  ff. 

213  Annie  L.  Howe,  in  the  Christian  Movement  in  Japan,  1908,  p.  296. 


PRACTICAL  DEDUCTIONS  93 

this  very  purpose.  But  the  content  of  the  ethnic  training  in  religion 
and  morals  is  often  desirable  as  a  material  even  directly  for  Christian 
education.  We  have  seen  clearly  that  the  process  of  idealization  which 
is  the  basis  of  religious  experience  is  possible  only  to  those  who  are 
mentally  mature,  and  the  immature  child  is  not  able  to  participate  in 
any  sense  in  this  finer  and  more  subtle  psychosis.  If  this  is  correct  to 
any  extent,  we  should  encourage  the  child  to  be  reared  in  a  moral  atmos- 
phere which  is  capable  of  provoking  the  social  reactions  from  him. 
In  order  to  create  such  an  atmosphere,  the  elements  that  compose  it 
must  be  easily  suited  to  the  experience  of  the  child,  otherwise  the  alleged 
excellence  of  materials  and  methods  would  only  be  useless.  Our  con- 
tention here,  then,  is  that  such  materials  which  are  suited  to  the  child's 
religious  and  moral  capacity  are  found  in  the  ethnic  religions  and  morality 
and  these  must  be  made  use  of  before  the  Christian  training  proper  may 
be  introduced.  The  more  highly  developed  concept  of  God,  for  example, 
of  Christianity  is  rather  a  poor  lesson  to  be  given  to  the  average  Japanese 
child.  It  ought  to  be  preceded  by  more  appropriate  and  racial  concepts 
which  can  prepare  for  higher  concepts,  for  premature  introduction  of 
religious  materials  would  hinder  rather  than  aid  the  religious  develop- 
ment of  the  Japanese  child.  The  ethnic  religions  of  Japan  are  rich 
enough  for  the  child,  and  they  can  be  given  with  advantage,  supple- 
mented, however,  and  interpreted  by  the  Christian  point  of  view. 

It  is  beyond  our  purpose  to  give  the  numerous  ways  in  which 
our  general  principle  may  be  applied.  We  have  merely  emphasized 
the  .relative  importance  of  the  ethnic  religions  as  the  proper  materials 
for  religious  training  of  young  children  who  are  mentally  incapable  of 
appreciating  the  ideal  personality  which  is  given  by  Christianity.  In 
the  case  of  the  Japanese  at  any  rate,  then,  the  religious  workers  must 
thoroughly  master  the  available  materials  found  in  these  great  systems 
of  thought  and  utilize  them  in  a  pedagogic  manner.  It  is  also  important 
that  we  should  know  the  nature  of  the  social  environment  in  which 
the  average  Japanese  is  brought  up.  When  all  these  elements  are 
mastered,  we  shall  be  able  to  formulate,  backed  by  the  knowledge  of 
the  essentials  of  the  Christian  teachings  and  the  psychological  under- 
standing of  the  moral  and  religious  development  of  Japanese  children, 
some  working  principles  as  to  the  ideals  and  the  methods  of  religious 
education  for  the  Japanese. 


CHAPTER  VI 

Conclusion  and  Summary 

In  the  foregoing  investigation  of  the  typical  conversion  experiences 
of  the  Japanese  Christians,  our  aim  has  been  to  analyse,  with  the  aid 
of  some  valid  conclusions  of  modern  psychology,  the  actual  situation 
in  which  the  Christian  character  is  given  birth  and  matured.  Our 
standpoint  has  been  practical  rather  then  theoretical,  but  practice 
without  adequate  theory  is  dangerous.  Our  method  has  been  bio- 
graphical and  introspective,  gathering  materials  from  the  experiences 
of  arbitrarily  chosen  subjects  who  have  undergone  the  religious  trans- 
formation and  have  been  converted  to  Christianity,  and  interpreting 
them  in  the  light  of  the  results  of  psychology  and  of  the  personal  experi- 
ence of  the  writer.  Our  cases  are  not  those  of  sudden  emotional 
alteration  of  personality,  but  those  where  slow  regeneration  has  taken 
place  by  coming  in  touch  with  the  exotic  religion  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
conversion  experience,  however,  is  not  without  its  due  preparation,  for 
we  have  discovered  that  the  majority  of  our  converts  had  some  degree 
of  social  and  moral  maturity.  Christianity  came  to  such  individuals  as 
the  final  stage  of  the  social  development  in  giving  them  the  idealized 
personality  in  the  conception  of  the  Christian  God,  which  was  decidedly 
lacking  in  the  ethnic  religions  of  Japan.  Our  investigation  has  made 
the  following  points  clear: 

(1)  The  average  Japanese  youth  of  the  middle  class  or  above  usually 
receives  religious  training  according  to  the  customs  and  habits  of  the 
community.  The  religious  atmosphere,  however,  is  never  a  pure  one, 
containing  all  the  constituent  elements  of  Japanese  religions.  These 
customs  in  the  religious  training  of  children  are  more  or  less  social  in 
nature  rather  than  strictly  religious.  It  is  the  spirit  of  the  community 
in  partaking  in  the  religious  festivities  which  has  the  lasting  influence 
upon  the  development  of  children.  This  communal  or  social  aspect  of 
the  native  religions  is  more  clearly  manifest  in  Shintoism  than  in  others. 

(2)  The  more  highly  educated  class,  however,  seem  to  instruct 
their  children  according  to  the  teachings  of  Confucius,  and  training  of 
this  kind  usually  emphasizes  the  moral  aspect  of  life  rather  than  the 
religious.  The  education  in  this  case  is  largely  intellectual,  and  often 
involves  exaggerated  discipline  in  memory  and  cognitive  exercises. 
Conversion  among  this  class  of  people  is  chiefly  in  terms  of  intellect, 
endeavoring  to  relate  ideationally  the  teachings  and  the  logic  of  Christi- 
anity with  those  which  had  been  received  in  Confucianism. 


CONCLUSION  AND  SUMMARY  95 

(3)  Conversion  among  the  Japanese,  moreover,  assumes  often  the 
social  aspect.  This  involves  the  process  of  imitation  and  suggestion, 
as  in  the  case  of  ordinary  revivalistic  conversion.  The  respect  for  the 
Christian  character,  the  influence  of  the  conduct  which  exhibits  a  wealth 
of  affection,  of  kind-heartedness,  of  manliness, — the  sense  of  hero- 
worship,  in  other  words,  forms  the  stimulus  and  occasion  for  conversion 
into  the  religion  of  Christ.  Sometimes  the  social  process  takes  on  a 
coercive  character,  involving  often  a  conventional  and  formal  performance 
of  decision  to  accept  the  new  faith.  This  process  is  more  effective 
among  emotionally  inclined  individuals.  Conversion  in  such  a  case 
is  a  mere  introduction  to  Christianity,  and  the  religious  reconstructions 
begin  at  this  point  with  the  aid  of  ideational  means.  Thus  this  type 
of  mind  is  to  be  contrasted  with  the  intellectual  type,  which  reaches  the 
process  of  conversion  after  this  reconstruction  has  culminated.  This 
may  account  for  the  fact  that  the  cases  of  intellectual  conversion  are 
found  among  the  older  class  of  individuals. 

(4)  Conversion  again  may  be  experienced  at  a  critical  period  of 
life.  This  may  not  be  an  evolutionary  crisis  of  the  organism,  such  as 
the  period  of  pubescence.  The  crisis  in  our  case  means  any  serious 
incident  in  one's  life,  which  gives  a  painful  experience  to  the  subject, 
such  as  sickness  in  the  family,  failure  in  business,  etc.  Religion  in 
this  case  becomes  largely  a  means  of  restoring  the  comfort  to  life,  of 
promoting  the  welfare  of  both  the  individual  and  the  family,  and  in 
this  sense,  religion  may  be  regarded  as  a  factor  in  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence. 

(5)  Conversion  brings  forth  as  its  fruit  the  new  life,  involving  often 
complete  change  in  the  mode  of  behavior  both  physiological  and  psy- 
chological. This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  organism  has  developed 
and  is  capable  of  adjusting  the  behavior  in  such  a  way  as  is  most  bene- 
ficial to  its  highest  attainment.  The  fundamental  impulse  again  is  the 
perfection  of  life  process.  This  is  the  reason  that  conversion  is  often 
identified  with  what  the  theologians  would  call  regeneration. 

(6)  To  be  more  psychological  in  our  attempt  to  interpret  the  con- 
version experiences  of  our  subjects,  we  found  first  of  all  that  the  reason 
why  they  abandoned  or  rather  outgrew  the  old  ethnic  religions  and 
accepted  or  developed  into  the  exotic  religion  of  Jesus  is  primarily  due 
to  the  fact  that  they  saw  in  Christianity  something  bigger  and  more 
satisfactory  to  the  increasing  demand  of  their  growing  life.  This  some- 
thing was  found  to  be  the  supremely  and  perfectly  idealized  God  whom 


96  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 

Christ  had  taught  and  exemplified.    This  concept  of  Personal    Being 
was  decidedly  lacking  in  the  ethnic  religions  of  Japan. 

(7)  We  have  also  seen  the  validity  of  the  concept  of  the  super- 
natural element  in  conversion.  It  has  been  argued  by  some  psycholo- 
gists that  what  is  functioning  in  the  mental  life  of  a  religious  devotee 
is  not  the  Personal  God  himself  but  only  the  idea  of  such.  This  has 
been  further  elaborated  by  saying  that  both  imaginary  and  real  objects 
of  worship  are  psychologically  valid,  so  long  as  they  serve  the  function 
expected  of  them.  By  certain  theologians,  however,  this  point  has  been 
criticised  more  or  less  severely  in  recent  years  on  the  ground  that  the 
psychologists  are  apt  to  substitute  for  the  thing  itself  its  idea  only,  and 
that  thereby  they  are  denying  the  existence  of  God  himself.  This 
charge  is  not  just,  for  we  are  concerned  mainly  with  the  subjective 
evidence  of  the  existence  of  God,  and  not  with  the  ontological  specula- 
tion with  reference  thereto.  As  far  as  psychology  is  concerned,  then, 
we  are  satisfied  to  see  the  function  which  God  performs  in  life,  that  is, 
the  actual  influence  of  the  belief  in  the  Supreme  Being,  modifying  the 
thought  process  as  well  as  the  motor  manifestations  of  fundamental 
impulses,  and  such  an  evidence  of  the  function  of  God  is  sufficient 
to  convince  us  of  its  reality. 

(8)  This  would  lead  us  to  the  consideration  of  the  psychological 
criterion  of  morality  and  religion.  The  confusion  and  sometimes  a 
feeble  attempt  to  distinguish  these  two  phases  of  our  higher  life  on  the 
part  of  the  religious  psychologists,  have  sadly  belittled  the  true  signifi- 
cance of  the  religious  consciousness.  We  have  seen  that  both  these 
states  of  consciousness  are  social  in  their  inherent  nature,  and,  therefore, 
a  merely  social  criterion  is  insufficient.  In  the  examination  of  our 
cases,  we  were  compelled  to  regard  the  conversion  experience  as  a  process 
of  development  from  the  vaguely  social  and  from  the  merely  moral  to  the 
definitely  religious  consciousness,  and  the  essence  of  the  religious  con- 
sciousness we  have  seen  to  consist  in  the  presence  of  and  the  belief  in  the 
Supernatural  Being  who  was  the  product  of  idealization  as  far  as  the 
individual's  personal  experience  is  concerned.  In  thus  defining  the  reli- 
gious consciousness  we  were  forced  to  reconstruct  the  "Dialectic  of 
Personal  Growth"  as  expounded  by  Baldwin,  and  to  add  a  higher  stage 
which  we  call  the  super jective  stage.  The  point  of  differentiation  between 
the  moral  and  the  religious  is  reached  when  the  moral  comes  to  its  ideal- 
izing stage  where  the  object  of  social  interaction  is  not  only  the  visible 
human  being,  but  also  the  idealized  perfect  being  which  is  greater  and 
more  satisfying  than  human  personality. 


CONCLUSION  AND  SUMMARY  97 

(9)  On  the  practical  side  of  our  discussion,  we  have  found  that  the 
more  thorough  training  of  missionaries  in  the  science  of  missions  was  a 
necessity.  The  ignorance  and  sometimes  the  hostility  exhibited  by 
missionaries  toward  all  forms  of  ethnic  religious  practices  and  concepts 
account  for  the  apparent  tardiness  with  which  the  propaganda  of  the 
Christian  religion  in  foreign  lands  is  being  carried  out.  A  careful  study 
of  the  ethnic  religions  will  give  the  actual  workers  a  clue  to  their  enter- 
prise, and  a  more  economical  and  desirable  effect  will  be  produced.  The 
training  of  missionaries  must  take  cognizance  of  the  principle  here  derived 
in  order  to  reap  maximum  results.  It  is  also  necessary  to  change  in 
some  cases  the  standard  of  selection  of  missionaries  on  the  part  of  the 
Mission  Boards. 

(10)  With  reference  to  the  religious  education  of  the  Japanese,  we 
found  that  the  native  training  in  religion  and  morals  has  some  value 
especially  for  the  younger  children,  although  Christian  materials  must 
supplement  it  by  giving  fuller  meaning  and  a  more  wholesome  stand- 
point. The  agencies  which  now  exist  in  Japan  for  Christian  religious 
education  are  the  mission  school,  the  Sunday  School  and  the  kinder- 
garten. These  institutions,  though  yet  unscientific,  are  beginning  to 
realize  the  necessity  of  carrying  out  their  work  in  harmony  with  the 
results  of  modern  sciences.  Our  investigation  has  emphasized  the 
situation  by  pointing  out  the  necessity  of  studying  more  psychologically 
the  apperceptive  mass  of  the  Japanese  children,  and  when  this  is  done, 
we  may  be  able  to  devise  a  helpful  plan  of  religious  education  for  the 
Japanese,  in  the  light  of  all  the  elements  involved  in  the  educational 
situation  of  Japan. 


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102  THE.  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  ORIENTAL  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE 


VITA 

The  author  of  this  dissertation,  Katsuji  Kato,  was  born  in  Osaka,  Japan, 
December  24,  1885.  After  completing  his  primary  education  in  the  native  city,  he 
studied  in  Tokyo  Gakuin  (Duncan  Academy),  Tokyo,  graduating  in  March,  1903.  In 
1903-1904  he  was  a  teacher  in  Wilmina  Girls'  School,  Osaka.  Coming  to  the  United 
States  of  America  in  1904,  he  entered  Kalamazoo  College,  Kalamazoo,  Michigan,  where 
he  finished  his  undergraduate  work  in  1909  with  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts.  Then 
he  studied  in  the  Graduate  Divinity  School  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  1909-1913 
with  the  major  in  Religious  Education  and  the  minor  in  Psychology.  In  1910,  he  re- 
ceived the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  with  a  dissertation  on  "The  Psychology  of  Sin:  Its 
Significance  to  Religious  Education";  and  in  1911,  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Divinity 
with  a  dissertation  on  "The  Socialization  of  the  Child:  A  Psychological  Study."  The 
present  thesis  was  begun  at  the  suggestion  of  Professor  James  Rowland  Angell,  head 
of  the  Department  of  Psychology  and  completed  under  the  wise  direction  and  con- 
stant encouragement  of  Professor  Theodore  Gerald  Soares,  head  of  the  Department 
of  Practical  Theology.  The  author  acknowledges  his  indebtedness  to  the  views  of 
Professors  G.  H.  Mead  and  E.  S.  Ames  of  the  Department  of  Philosophy,  while  the 
lectures  and  writings  of  Professors  J.  R.  Angell  and  H.  A.  Carr  of  the  Department  of 
Psychology  and  Professors  C.  H.  Judd  and  F.  N.  Freeman  of  the  School  of  Education 
had  contributed  to  the  general  psychological  background  of  the  investigation. 


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